PowerPuff Girls R: Regressions
by Enthriex
Summary: This story is the continuation of PPGR:Reflections, it is based on the childhoods of the RowdyRude Boys and Powerpunk Girls as well as the issue of the main villain and how it came to be; these are chapters that explain a lot more about their connection with their other selves as well as mysteries that hadn t been explained before. -PPG n RRB come afterwards-*Slight shonen ai too*
1. Memory Lane

**A/C: I´m updating this first chapter of PPGR: Regressions just to clear up what happened with Mitsuki XD the following chapters will come when I finish Townsville´s first arc "PPGR: Realities" Oh and for those confused, PPGR: Regressions is the continuation of PPGR: Reflections.**

**This arc will explain in depth about the RowdyRude Boys past as well as The PowerPunks past, it also includes the mirror counterparts of the boys (Haru, Ressee and Kai) in the mirror realm they are (Harumi, Rex and Kyle) it explains the origins of some issues like for example Miharu´s issue of Rave- Bruise and also Rage´s parenting issue and some other stuff. I know many are looking forward to the rudes and ruffs to meet for longer periods of time and yes, it will happen but first I needed to add this (Thankfully this is not as long as the PPGR: Reflections arc)**

**I hope you guys enjoy this arc just as I loved writing this and again I tell you all that questions either in pm, deviant or review here are welcome and I´ll be sure to answer you guys (If it´s through review you´ll have to wait until I update the story so you get the answer, I´d suggest you to pm instead but well, do as you wish XD ) Try not to ask for spoilers please XD**

**Chapter 1: Memory Lane**

I had been a great deal of time wandering in this fantasy place, I left my previous place down the stairway and climbed up to find a gorgeous city. I decided to go over there to clear my head and hopefully ask for more information and confirmation of what the angel had said; it was kind of odd since people looked at first glance like balls of light floating around. There was clear serenity in this place, a sense of calm… a great feeling of comfort and I oddly felt in home. The moment I gave a step in, the souls changed shape and appeared like ghosts of people or well, more exactly speaking… the souls of people and weirdly animals as well, I was really curious about this place and the way people would act when I spoke to them. When I looked up I saw a never ending blue sky which looked like a crystal veil, it was snowing for some odd reason and it just made the city look even more beautiful.

I kept wandering looking at everything around me realizing this looked like some sort of Utopia when suddenly someone caught my attention; it was the soul of a boy who turned to see me after a while of staring at him, he then smiled gently towards me and nodded, I wonder if he was saying it was okay to talk to him or something…

"Well hello, young one" said the boy.

"I was wondering about this place…"

"Yes, I know you don´t live here currently, many souls that are still living on earth come here and well, it´s understandable that you are curious of this place" said the boy "This place is the Soul Realm but we affectionately refer to it as Serene City"

"Serene City…" I murmured intrigued "My name is Daiichi"

"Daiichi? I see, well… I´m planning on going to earth soon so my name will be Railey there"

"Railey? If you meet Makoto he would probably shorten it to Rale" I said wondering about Makoto´s thing with R names that end with E.

"Hahaha Rale? That sounds good! I´ll use that as my nickname then" said the boy who chuckled at the mention of it "Well, I´m not sure if I´ll remember to use it but if you by any chance see me, be sure to remind me of it and please refer to me like that as well haha"

"Sure I guess" I said "By the way… I was talking to an angel with brown hair and yellow eyes earlier and-"

"Do you mean Raguel?" Rale asked looking curious "You met one of the archangels? That´s so cool"

"Raguel? That´s his name?" I asked wondering if we were talking about the same angel.

"It emits this sense of comfort and confidence when being close to it, it also dissipates doubts in the heart and clears confusion, It is good to calm arguments and bring reconciliation" said Rale while smiling.

"Oh… no, then I think we are not talking about the same one and hey, what do you mean with It?" I asked confused.

"That´s because souls and angels have no gender" said Rale "But it´s okay to refer to us like "she" or "he" when they take a certain shape" said Rale "If it wasn´t the angel you saw, how did it look like?"

"He had long brown hair and yellow eyes…" I said a little puzzled on how to explain.

"Hmm… I´m not sure who you are talking about, there are many angels with such hair color but haha it would have been cool if it had been Raguel, had to try right?" said Rale looking troubled "Hmm… but now that I think so, I wonder if it even has that hair color, anyway, Sorry for not being able to identify him for you"

"That´s okay… but well, he mentioned something about angels and demons having yellow eyes and-"

"Demons?" asked Rale surprised, he then startled laughing "Hahaha seems that angel pulled your leg"

"What? Why?"

"Demons aren´t real" said Rale, what? Demons do not exist…? Then what was Brazen…? "It is true angels have yellow eyes but demons don´t exist"

"But he said that they both had yellow eyes and anyone else would have color contact lenses or have a disease" I said.

"Well, that´s true except for the demons part, demons are only a myth humans like to believe in just like the silver cord that supposedly ties the soul to the body; also, angels are difficult to spot on earth since those angels that have had their memory wiped before being born as human children have different colored eyes to remain unrecognized, hmmm… but well, angels that go down there with a purpose and keep their memories can´t change their eye color so they do seem yellow, the only way to disguise them is to wear different colored contact lenses…"

"You say demons don´t exist… but then, how do monsters exist as well as evil beings that look like demons…?" I asked recalling Brazen, if he wasn´t a demon, what was he? An angel? That couldn´t be possible…

"Monsters are like animals, they go down there to fulfill their purpose but they are not evil in nature" said Rale "As for the evil beings… I´ve heard the rumors of a really dangerous virus that attacked an angel once"

"A virus?"

"Yes, the angel that was attacked I believe was ´´Lucifer´´ but well, they are only rumors so I can´t really confirm you" said Rale looking thoughtful.

"It´s alright, what else do you know?"

"Well, that angel went to earth and corrupted a personality down there and is looking to achieve some kind of revenge" said Rale "If that is true… that Corrupt Angel might start targeting angels down there to achieve a superior power"

"That Angel is targeting angels…?"

"Well, I think we should call it a Virus instead of an angel… that Virus plans on killing angels by eating their Chant Spheres" said Rale looking worried "But I hope that is only some fake gossip around here"

"Chant Spheres?"

"The Chant spheres are little marbles of light that dwell in certain body parts of Angels that have gone to earth" said Rale "It is so they can keep being on earth, you could say it´s some sort of symbol that authorizes them to be on earth having a physical shape there and keep their memories"

"I see… so if you take a Chant Sphere from one, does that mean the angel dies?"

"Not exactly, after losing the Chant Sphere, they have a certain amount of time to retrieve it before coming back here without being able to return for some centuries until a new Chant Sphere is formed" said Rale, that did sound awful "An angel that has had their Chant Sphere removed goes through an intense deal of pain, the true pain they can experience and well those Chant Spheres have an embodiment of power within too even if they don´t tie the angel´s life in it"

"What happens to the angels that have had their memory wiped?"

"Those are more hard to spot but if the virus is the one chasing them down, it shouldn´t have it hard since angels can sense each other, they can be misguided by outside facts like applying logic instead of just following their senses but it´s certainly easy to chase them down" said Rale "An Angel that has no knowledge of what´s going on is on more danger since it will keep behaving like it is true in nature whereas an angel that knows their stay on earth is dangerous may behave entirely different to misguide the Virus"

"Entirely different? You mean like a corrupt angel?"

"Do not think that corrupt angels are common… this is like the only case that something like that has come up even on a rumor but aside of that unique exception, corrupt angels do not exist, if anything, ´´evil beings´´ could be like spawns from the original virus" said Rale "When I say differently, I mean like behaving like a crap of human being if I may use those terms… they behave in unspeakable ways so that the enemy uses logic and disregards him/ her as an angel"

"Hmm I think that is smart" I said thoughtful.

"If the rumors are true, then one can´t really say that a person with legit yellow eyes is an angel since the virus and virus spawns if any, have yellow eyes as well" said Rale "Also, archangels are easier to spot than angels since their presences are stronger"

"I see…"

"I heard that an archangel had an accident once, it lost its memories and well became a personality without a life plan, I don´t know much about it but that archangel is in great peril" said Rale "I just hope another archangel or angel is looking after it"

"So that archangel that suffered that accident, has a Chant Sphere as well even when having its memory wiped?"

"Unfortunately yes, if the archangel originally just went there by authorization and didn´t plan a life on earth then he or she is set to the same, if he or she loses the chant sphere they come back here" said Rale "Angels with true personalities on earth have a different type of chant spheres though, if those chant spheres are removed, that angel is locked inside it"

"Meaning taking the chant sphere of an angel with a life plan on earth is like removing the soul of the person?"

"Yes, their personalities are left in a state where if they don´t have a soul exchange in that moment, then they die" said Rale, soul exchange…? "Those chant spheres do not have a time limit of being recovered, once it´s taken it´s over"

"That´s horrible…" I murmured a little worried, was this… what Her wanted us to face? This Virus that is hunting angels…? Or is she not aware of this…? If only I could go back there and tell them about this…

XXX

Time seemed to stop as we faced what looked to be one of the most awful incidents, not to say puzzling… as we waited for help we examined Mitsuki who had a wound in form of a cross close to his waist, it was an odd wound since it was almost perfect, it looked like a surgery cut… Miharu kept crying beside his unconscious body; I just wonder how much time passed for this to happen and if there was any hope for Mitsuki to survive, it was scary how the mirrors that were around were smeared with blood and Mitsuki lying there so pale, it was incredibly terrifying…

After a bit of finding Mitsuki and checking him to see what had happened I noticed Mitsuki´s phone on the floor covered in blood and with the battery missing, so, I took the phone and put my battery in it to look for Matt´s number and ask him to bring help.

"Makoto, tell him to hurry…" I hear Miharu say while sobbing. The phone rang endlessly before he picked up, I was starting to think he might have been attacked as well and also wondered what kind of person takes the battery and leaves the phone as it is instead of destroying it?

"Mitsuki?" I heard Matt say "Where are you dude? So mature of you to hide before riding the ´´Beheader´´ "he said with a tone of sarcasm.

"Matt, it´s Makoto, Can you two rush over the house of mirrors please?" I asked him while looking away uneasy.

"Eh? Why the hurry? And why do you have Mitsuki´s phone?" asked Matt confused.

"Please! Just hurry! Mitsuki is dying!" I said horribly concerned.

"Dying? I thought the dude knew how to get out of that place alone haha seems he won´t ever figure it out no matter how many years pass" he said while chuckling.

"Matt! Just come please! And call an ambulance!" I said concerned and frustrated that he wasn´t taking it seriously; though well, before I could say anything else I noticed the end tone.

"What did he say…?" Miharu said as he kept looking at Mitsuki.

"I don´t know, he hung up" I said puzzled "Is Mitsuki going to die…? Just like this…?"

"Mitsuki…" murmured Miharu as he kept crying, I then noticed Mitsuki had moved his hand to pet his head, he was looking wearily at him with only one of his eyes open.

"Hey, don´t cry…" he murmured weakly.

"Mitsuki! You are still alive!" I said still concerned yet relieved he was still breathing…

"I get distracted and this happens… in my defense, she was saying really puzzling things" he said while smiling as much as he could manage to.

"Mitsuki, please hang on…" I said frustrated, we couldn´t move him or he would die from severe blood loss…"

"Do not fret; I listened to what you said before… Matt will come" said Mitsuki.

"How do you know? He hung up…" I said worried and sad.

"You were blunt enough… I´m certain about him understanding" he said "Then again, because I got distracted, I won´t make it to the hospital…"

"Don´t say that! Matt will come soon!" I said looking horribly upset at him.

"H always comes just a little too late… haha, that´s Matt for you, I´m still grateful he´s always been there for this knucklehead" he said as he smiled troubled, Miharu kept trying to cure him though he ended freezing his bleeding.

"Mitsuki… I will try to make your bleeding stop for some time…" said Miharu as he sobbed.

"You are a very kind child, you make me feel like an older brother" said Mitsuki as he suppressed a chuckle "Just like my brother Kyle and Matt are to me"

"But your brother…" murmured Miharu uneasy.

"I know he is with me always… somewhere, he is watching me… I can´t see him, but I know he´s there and is… listening to me…"

"Mitsuki! Stay away! Please!" I said scared since he looked like he was falling unconscious.

"I want to… I really want…" he said as he kept petting Miharu and suddenly stopped.

"No! don´t die! No!" said Miharu desperately, he then held his head frustrated probably about to burst in tears.

"Mitsuki…!" exclaimed Matt as he came running.

"Matt…" I murmured ignoring what to say.

"I´m sorry, I got lost momentarily… Kisaki went ahead to call the ambulance, sorry for what happened earlier, my phone´s battery died" said Matt as he approached us.

"Mitsuki is…" I murmured not wanting to say it.

"This wasn´t supposed to happen…" he said looking away while frowning, he then knelt down beside him and stared at him "Mitsuki, you fucking asshole, you can´t die yet! Wake up already!" he yelled to him as he punched him.

"Matt! Don´t hit him!" I said startled, why would he hit him?!

"…Was that really necessary…" said Mitsuki as he looked annoyed at him "Always so rough…"

"Mitsuki!" both Miharu and I said surprised.

"How?" I asked awestruck about it, I thought he had died…

"But his aura, his aura was gone…" said Miharu perplexed.

"Nah, he was still breathing" Matt said as he looked away.

"Thank you!" I said while hugging him happily.

"Ah? Why are you thanking me you weirdo, I just punched him" he said while staring at me sarcastically.

"Maybe, it was too faint to see…" murmured Miharu.

"Yeah, his punched are miraculous" said Mitsuki while chuckling briefly.

"Idiot don´t exaggerate, you were just not dead yet" said Matt looking indifferent.

"It´s like when people punch to get some sense into the person" said Mitsuki as he smiled "But I´m not thanking you, it hurt… I felt like you had punched my soul right back"

"I think is to knock sense into but anyway, don´t say nonsense" said Matt looking dubious at him "At least you´ll hang on till the surgery…"

"How do you know?" the three of us asked him.

"It´s just a hunch, I´m not sure if he´ll hang on that much, I just want him to" said Matt "Our thoughts are able to affect physical reality so if Mitsuki thinks he won´t die, he won´t die and less if it´s not his time to go, well that´s for him to decide"

"How is he going to-" Miharu and I said interrupted by Matt.

"So just be positive" he said flatly to Mitsuki as he sighed.

"I will" said Mitsuki as he smiled and nodded, yet he fell unconscious again.

"Mitsuki!" we exclaimed scared except for Matt.

"He is still breathing, he can sleep all he wants for all I care, if he is not dead, that´s enough for me" said Matt.

We sat there without anyone saying anything until Kisaki arrived, the paramedics lifted Mitsuki on a gurney and took him inside the ambulance; we left right away towards the hospital and reached it within minutes, the hospital was fortunately close to the amusement park, it was kind of convenient right?

As soon as we went in, Miharu went off while I stood in front of the elevator, he then stopped running and turned to see me confused.

"Makoto?"

"I´ll be right there, I just want to visit Daiichi for a little while… I won´t take long" I said, I felt really guilty whenever I thought Daiichi was alone in that room.

"Alright… I´ll be with Matt…" said Miharu as he left, I on the other hand went into the elevator and towards Daiichi´s room in a rush, I wanted to see Rage just for a little while since I feel I haven´t been around as I should be.

"Daiichi…" I murmured as I went into the room looking at Rage unconscious on the bed, he had this oxygen mask on his face, if he was sleeping… why would he need that?

I walked inside the room and leaned against the wall staring at Daiichi melancholically feeling my heart twist with remorse, I didn´t know why but I felt like this was my fault… something inside me told me so and just like when I was in Townsville, this feeling told me that Daiichi wasn´t okay, Daiichi was probably too far away to reach; his body was here… he was so close yet I felt like there was an endless gap between us that who knew when it was going to close; He wasn´t sleeping, he wasn´t dreaming or maybe he was…? But even so… this state of his… this state that threatens his life and puts doubts in my heart about him awakening, talking to him or even have him close; his sole conscious presence…

These thoughts were eating me inside, Daiichi wasn´t going to wake up soon, he wasn´t just sleeping, he was in a comma… just like that boy Brick was… Daiichi was in such a grave state and I dared leave him alone, if I was in that situation I´m sure Daiichi would be here every day but what about me? I go have fun at the amusement park, I go hang out with others… what kind of brother am I? What kind of friend am I…?

"Daiichi, I´m so sorry…" I murmured as tears trailed down my eyes "Even when you take care of me so dearly… I took too long to realize that you weren't sleeping… how dumb I am, aren´t I…? Miharu tried to hide it from me for some reason but well… I just don´t know what to do or think… right now Mitsuki is on the verge of dying too so I just don´t know Rage… What´s going on? Why is this happening to us…?" I said as I sobbed while looking at his calm expression sadly not getting a reply "I believe you can at least hear me since the doctor told me to tell you about stuff… so I just want to apologize for everything I´ve made you go through, all that pain you had to carry all by yourself… All that burden you experience even now, I´m sure I´m at fault for many things like taking your childhood away since you had to take care of me back then like a parent… and I just…" I said as my voice broke down and started crying "I just want to say I´m sorry…"

For my dismay, as soon as I finished saying that, a red smoke engulfed me making me appear before Her startling me, Miharu looked at me concerned like wanting to ask what I had but was debating whether to ask me or not.

"Don't worry Miharu, I´m fine" I said as I rubbed my tears off with my arm and offered him a big grin.

"Makoto…" murmured Miharu as he looked at me still worried, I then turned to face Her and frowned.

"What is it? Mitsuki is dying! Why did you call us?!" I said upset as I kept to myself the fact I had gone to visit Daiichi and my irritation for being taken forcefully away.

"I called you here to tell you that, Mitsuki, will not survive" said Her flatly.

"What?! How do you know?" I said frustrated and scared.

"It´s just meant to happen" she said.

"Are you saying we shouldn´t do anything? He just can´t be saved…?" I asked her incredulous.

"I don´t comprehend why humans are so stubborn when it comes to death" she said bored like.

"Because we have feelings" said Miharu while frowning, he looked angry… and I thought only Bruise could be angry…

"But well, I´m saying this because if I say it later, it´ll be too late; there is a way to save him though" said Her.

"There is?!" I said surprised.

"It´s dangerous still want to give it try?" said Her.

"What is it?" we asked.

"To infuse Chemical X into him" she said flatly "It´s dangerous to try and turn a human into a super being like you three since there´s a minimal chance of that happening"

"What can happen…?" we asked curious and slightly concerned.

"There´s a 70% for him to turn into a monster, 29% to result in death and 1% for it to succeed" she said.

"What?! Why?!" I said alarmed.

"When a person is bathed with Chemical X 50% become monsters and 50% have powers temporally; when it´s infusing it to make it permanent is to change the person´s structure" said Her.

"How?" I asked puzzled.

"It transforms muscles, organs, blood… every fiber and corner is modified to match one of a super being. Super being are not structured like a human, they look like one yet they are entirely different from the inside… A powerless human would be pierced by a hit of a laser beam; a super being takes it as a small burn. The impact of a car would kill a person yet a super being would receive a simple smack or in cases of superior strength, the car ends destroyed instead"

"Oh…" I murmured as I stared curiously at Her.

"Super beings have Chemical X flowing through their bodies like the blood a human carries in their arteries which keep the heart beating; an example of that is Barricade, he has a great amount of Chemical X which resulted on giving life to his hair… Infusing Chemical X means to change blood for Chemical X and that the heart accepts it" said Her.

"Wait! So we bleed Chemical X too? But I´ve always bled normal blood…" I said confused.

"Humans that have two types of blood, the one that travels inside the arteries feeding the heart while the veins transports the dirty blood, that´s the one humans bleed; it´s a defense layer"

"Oh… but then, shouldn´t we bleed dirty Chemical X?" I said wondering if it made sense.

"Indeed, it´s red Chemical X which could be compared to the dirty blood in the veins of a human" she said flatly "The red is a façade to emulate ´´blood´´ " said Her.

"Wow, who would know…" I said amazed "Does that mean our hearts are black too?"

"Anyway, will you give it a try?" Her asked ignoring my question.

"Yeah… if Mitsuki will die at this rate… I rather cling to the slightest chance there is" said Miharu shyly.

"I agree too… yet I would like asking Matt for his opinion" I said "I just feel that´s the right thing for us to do"

"Yes…" said Miharu while nodding.

"Should we call our ´´blood´´ blood anyway?" I said puzzled going back to the past subject.

"Yes, just do that" said Her dismissively.

"Well… it works the same as blood, looks like blood…" murmured Miharu.

"It´s blood!" I said while smiling as the smoke engulfed us once again, we then appeared back in the hospital close to where Matt was; seems I would need to continue my visit to Rage later…

"Hey cutie…" said Matt as he looked kind of down, he was sitting in the hospital waiting area; it was kind of sad to see him that way… and hey, where was Kisaki? "You two sure took your time"

"Kisaki…?" asked Miharu wondering the same as me.

"She went back already, I believe she may have gone tell the others about this but who knows" said Matt.

"Matt… we need to talk seriously with you" I said confused on how to explain.

"I wonder what that might be…" he said as he sighed, I motioned for him to follow us and so we went to the rooftop to talk. I then explained him about the possibility of Mitsuki´s survival but the risk it was…

"So we wanted to know if you were okay or not with it…" said Miharu shyly.

"I see… well, as Mitsuki´s best friend and guardian I must say that´s the best we can take our chances on" said Matt thoughtfully.

"Guardian? You are Mitsuki´s babysitter?" I asked puzzled.

"Hahahahaha no way! If he was a kid then yes but no, his brother only entrusted me with him" said Matt while smiling troubled.

"But it´s the same right? You had to take care of him" I said curious.

"I´ve always seen Mitsuki as my closest friend and well, back then I admit I saw him like the younger brother I never had but I can´t really call myself his babysitter… I say guardian because since Mitsuki has no relatives, I would be the one to decide about many family matters that normally only his relatives are allowed to have a say on them" said Matt.

"Mitsuki has no relatives…?" asked Miharu sounding sad.

"What about his parents…?" I asked looking concerned at Matt.

"I can´t really explain you since Mitsuki´s things are a little private, I don´t want to be mean but I don´t go telling around Mitsuki´s personal stuff" he said as he smiled apologetically "He might tell you one of these days though"

"Hehe you are a nice friend" I said while smiling.

"I probably shouldn´t have said he had no relatives… but well, I will need to apologize to him for that"

"So then, we can take him…?" I said.

"Well, it might be probably best to wait for the surgery to finish" said Matt.

"Mitsuki…" said Miharu while sobbing "I don´t want him to die, it´s my fault for leaving him…"

"Miharu, calm down… you´ll see Her will fix him" I said while smiling reassuringly, in that moment we hear Her´s voice and as we looked around we were engulfed in the smoke appearing back in the laboratory.

"Whoa, what is this place?" asked Matt, it´s surprising Her allowed him to come… Mitsuki was lying on the steel bed with the wound still there…

"Why did you bring Mitsuki here? They hadn´t finished the surgery…" I said concerned as Her approached Mitsuki.

"He was about to die in mid surgery" said Her flatly "So I decided to just bring him here"

"But wouldn´t that-" I said interrupted by Her.

"I erased the humans' memories of even going to the amusement park" she said.

"Oh…" I murmured, she sure does anything she pleases…

"Wait, aren´t you going to ask Matt what he said?"

"I heard clearly, as he said ´´yes´´ I did what I had to" said Her.

"Well, well… seems she listens to everything" said Matt, we then saw how she moved a claw in circles and Mitsuki´s bleeding stopped. Mitsuki was already wearing an oxygen mask and a heart rate machine was doing beep noises indicating his heart´s state…

"I saw you trying to cure him earlier" said Her flatly.

"Ah, yes…" murmured Miharu as he looked down, I wonder if I should refer to him a Rave only since he is technically not Miharu…

"You were doing it wrong but you are certainly capable to; you will learn now" she said as she motioned him to go closer.

"Now…?" murmured Rave puzzled looking kind of nervous.

"Yes, you will practice with Mitsuki" said Her shocking us.

"EH?" we exclaimed surprised at that, practice with Mitsuki?!

"You better do it well or you might kill him" said Her while smirking, how can she smirk that way saying that?!

"What?!" exclaimed Matt alarmed.

"Don´t worry, she won´t let Mitsuki die… I´m sure of that" I said nervous.

"I´ll try and trust that..." he said looking worried and well who can blame him… I´m too shocked on the fact she is risking his life like that, it´s not like I doubt Rave but if he accidentally does something irreversible, Mitsuki will… "Can I have a word with Rave?"

"Sure, but be quick about it, Mitsuki can´t wait" said Her.

"Yeah, I won´t take much" I said as I motioned Rave to follow me outside the laboratory.

"Makoto… what´s the matter?" he asked while looking concerned at me once we were outside.

"Rave… do you know anything about Miharu?" I asked him straightforwardly, I had to since Misuki couldn´t wait.

"Miharu…? What…?" asked Rave looking perplexed at me.

"You know I´ve always called you Miharu don´t you…"

"Yes, but I never really understood… dad also calls me that, I sometimes wonder if it is my name or not…" said Rave shocking me, what was he saying…?

"But Rave, you remember everything about our childhood, don´t you? You even told me about events from the past at the amusement park"

"My memory is not so good, Makoto… I remember some things from the past… but I can´t recall every little detail…" said Rave while looking down shyly "I know my dad abuses me and so on but I don´t-"

"Rave, do you remember when you met Harumi…?" I asked him.

"Harumi… I have vague memories about him… I just know he was my neighbor and that we got along really well, I do remember some things but I…" he murmured shyly while looking away.

"Do you remember then when Harumi died? What exactly happened?" I asked getting concerned "What you felt…?"

"That is… I know he died, but I don´t remember that at all, I know nothing about how he died" said Rave shocking me, Miharu had told me back then how he saw Harumi´s death and the wrath he felt… how could he not remember…? Unless he doesn´t remember the events that caused him wrath…

"Do you remember anything about you being angry at all…?"

"That is…" he murmured looking away nervously "Why are you asking me this…?"

"Rave… you…" I murmured shocked, it was clear he wasn´t Miharu, he was only a part of himself, a strange fragment of himself… what happened to Miharu…? Where is my friend and brother…?

"Makoto… are you alright…?" he asked looking concerned at me.

"Do you then remember when you argued with Daiichi…?"

"Why are you asking this to me…" he murmured as he trembled and looked down as tears welled up in his eyes, he probably doesn´t remember…

"I´m sorry, I just asked a lot of nonsensical questions, let´s go back, Mitsuki is waiting" I said dropping the conversation, it was enough for me to realize Rave wasn´t Miharu but a fragment of what he was once, it wasn´t a matter of personality change, Bruise and Rave thought differently, even if they have similar things they shared, they are like two different persons in the same body.

"Okay…" murmured Miharu as we went back to the laboratory, Miharu walked over to where Mitsuki was waiting for Her to go as well.

"So well, now that you are done talking, you two should wait outside, Rave will go when we are done with the surgery" she said, hope he doesn´t faint for the stress…

"Okay…" we said as we started to leave.

"By the way, don´t go fooling around" said Her as we left, what did she mean…?

"Geez, that woman knows everything" said Matt "That´s a little creepy"

"Kind of…" I said as we went to sit on the sofa "I wonder how come she trusts you enough to bring you here…"

"It might be that we were together" said Matt.

"Matt, are you hiding something…?" I asked curious.

"Ah? Why do you ask?"

"It´s nothing… lately, people seem to be hiding things from me, it just saddens me" I said sad.

"Well… people are not trying to hurt you, they need to hide things sometimes, they do so for our welfare most of the time, though well… you are not free either" he said as he smirked.

"Eh…? What do you mean?" I asked confused, I also noticed him approaching me while kneeling down on me.

"That" he said as he pointed to my left eye, I just looked back at him shocked, I also stood paralyzed by staring at his eyes and just trembled in fear.

"How…" I murmured as I continued looking at him scared.

"That ´´green´´ eye is actually a color contact lens" he said as he smirked slyly, I then tried averting his gaze highly uneasy.

"Everyone has one or two secrets… I don´t think you should feel bad about it since you have secrets of your own… even some you are not even aware of" he said as he stared at me still smirking.

"But why… For some reason I feel like you know everything…" I said terrified.

"Don´t be scared of my eyes, they may bark but they won´t bite" he said as he smiled "I don´t know anything, I was just teasing you"

"Oh, haha, it sounded so real…" I said as I chuckled nervously and looked away.

"Or perhaps not?" he said whispering in my ear, I then froze once more, was he toying with me? Why…?

"What…?" I murmured as he held my chin and raised it deepening his stare on me.

"Thy heart is an empty abyss, at the bottom of it lies traces of doubt, sadness and confusion… that which hurls in your stomach threatening you to vomit is guilt and that which you hide is a bloodlust spawn" he said, how was he managing to scare me so much…? Though in that moment I noticed a frying pan smacking him all of a sudden.

"Oww…" uttered Matt while groaning, he then sat back straight on the sofa.

"I said no fooling around" said Her from who know where.

"So! How did you two meet?" I asked Matt.

"Hmm… it was so long ago… I met him at a park in EchoTown, Kyle, Mitsuki´s older brother and Mitsuki were doing a magic show"

"Wow! Mitsuki know how to do magic?" I said amazed.

"He was more of Kyle´s assistant haha so Kyle was the one who did the tricks, I was one of his spectators. Kyle´s magic was really something; in fact, h was the most spirited magician I´ve ever known, he had a passion for comedy, acting and magic" said Matt.

"Sounds like a really cool person" I said happily.

"I always saw him taking roses from out of nowhere and doves from behind his back or from a beret, I wonder even now if he was really doing tricks or actual magic" said Matt sounding thoughtful.

"Haha I bet he had powers" I said amused.

"Yes, it could have been" he said while smiling "I always saw them together… they were very close" said Matt looking a little sad.

"I wonder what happened to Kyle…" I murmured noticing Matt´s compassionate expression as I said that.

"It´s one of the saddest things you´ll ever hear, but that, I doubt Mitsuki will tell you and I can´t tell you either"

"It´s fine… I´m glad Mitsuki had you" I said while smiling.

"Haha that idiot will always have me" he said while smiling cheerfully.

"You two may come back here" said Her from who knows where again but well we went back right away to the laboratory looking at Her and Rave who seemed horribly exhausted, the pressure must have been too much…

"The surgery is done" said Her.

"It was really awful…" said Rave as he trembled.

"The reconstruction is on its way" she said as we saw two containers aside of Mitsuki´s bed, we also saw how Mitsuki´s steel bed turned into a container like the other two.

"Eh? What is this…?" I asked confused.

"I need to make a check up on you four" she said flatly "In the time you are here, your bodies will rest completely and your arms will be cured"

"Wow! Really?" I asked excited.

"I cannot be taking charge of many things separately therefore I can´t continue training you guys as you are right now" said Her.

"What about Rage…?" I asked curiously.

"By the time this ends he will eventually wake up and Mitsuki will be probably on the last stage, that one will decide if it was a success or a failure" she said.

"But then… isn´t this going to take long…?" asked Rave.

"You two will be asleep the whole time so you won´t feel it" said Her as she motioned us to get in the machines.

"I see… so Rage will be awake by then, I hate to be in bed that long but if it´s necessary…" I said, I decided to believe in her words, Rage will definitely wake up from the comma, I just know…

"Ah! But what about Matt?" I asked.

"Don´t worry about me, I´ll be probably heading home soon, ah… I hope Mitsuki doesn´t miss that many rehearsals or Rurika will have my head" he said as he laughed.

"Oh, alright then… I´ll see you again when I wake up" I said cheerfully.

"That´s for sure" he said while winking at me, I just laughed in response, he sometimes manages to scare me but I don´t feel threatened by his presence and well, I just know he is a good guy.

"Good night, Matt!" I said as I lied on the machine noticing Rave lying on his too, I saw also how the lid closed trapping me inside once I lied down, I felt so claustrophobic but as I started feeling nervous a gas seeped out from some tiny holes making me dizzy and drift into nothingness…

XXX

"What about their brother?" asked Matt.

"He is already in a comma, he couldn´t be much more unconscious unless he was dead" said Her as she yawned.

"Are you sure this will be helpful?" asked Matt as he looked indifferent at the containers.

"Yes, and it won´t take that much time" said Her.

"You should probably check Makoto´s left eye, there´s something you might not have noticed yet" said Matt.

"Yes, I know about the fake eye" said Her uninterested.

"No, the fact he can´t see with it" said Matt as he sighed.

"What? Indeed, I did not know about that" said Her "That explains a lot of things"

"Anyway, do you really expect answers from their memories?" asked Matt as he looked curiously at Her.

"Don´t worry, I won´t wander off to memories that are not involved on what I´m seeking" said Her.

"You can do as you like, I just wonder if you won´t reach a dead end after checking every corner of their lives" said Matt.

"I will have some answers, I´m sure of that" said Her.

"Hmm? How are you so sure?" asked Matt.

"I´ve noticed some markings on Brazen´s body, those are definitely connected to what I´m looking for" said Her.

"Just don´t overdo it… those children need you" said Matt.

"You sure don´t seem what you are supposed to be at all" she said as she looked at him sarcastically while suppressing a chuckle.

"That´s the idea" Matt said while winking "Anyway, I should probably get going now, mind giving me a lift?"

"Sure thing" said Her.

"But just one more thing" said Matt as he looked seriously at Her "Keep an eye on Mitsuki, he´s being targeted for some reason"

"Of course" said Her as she made Matt disappear and so focused on the containers "Memory Lane" she said making the entire room appear briefly black then showing a giant mirror.

Jomo´s research has brought no leads, he even went missing on the progress… but hopefully this will achieve what we couldn´t in decades; find a clue of what or who is Beichte.


	2. Scars

**A/C: This arc will explain in depth about the RowdyRude Boys past as well as The PowerPunks past, it also includes the mirror counterparts of the boys (Haru, Ressee and Kai) in the mirror realm they are (Harumi, Rex and Kyle) it explains the origins of some issues like for example Miharu´s issue of Rave- Bruise and also Rage´s parenting issue and some other stuff. I know many are looking forward to the rudes and ruffs to meet for longer periods of time and yes, it will happen but first I needed to add this (Thankfully this is not as long as the PPGR: Reflections arc)**

**I hope you guys enjoy this arc just as I loved writing this and again I tell you all that questions either in pm, deviant or review here are welcome and I´ll be sure to answer you guys (If it´s through review you´ll have to wait until I update the story so you get the answer, I´d suggest you to pm instead but well, do as you wish XD ) Try not to ask for spoilers please XD**

**Chapter 2: Scars**

It was a cold winter morning; it´s quite rare for days like these to occur in midsummer if not highly improbable of them happening. Jomo took his time to come back from investigating the PowerPunk girls and well, I do not feel fond of having been made to wait. That´s right, when Jomo comes back I will sourly speak my thoughts about this matter… how can he take so long? This project couldn´t wait at all and he was just delaying the process, stalling its complete phase. I admit I have grown a bit too desperate about its fulfillment but it´s something that is just worth it.

I sat on my bed looking sideways towards a window which showed me a slight peek of what was Dimenzia, in my daydream as I gazed through the window, I thought once more about the entire matter of the girls future enemies and there it was, the constant thought that bugged me: we were messing with the whole concept of life. Who are we to create artificial beings? And it´s still shameful to then expect souls to work with us so that the project bears fruit; It was plausible to think the souls would agree but it was still troublesome and possibly embarrassing to ask for their help in such cynical matter…

I then gazed sideways towards no particular direction and spaced out for a moment pondering about these troublesome things eventually reaching a conclusion: Angels are such naïve beings; interestingly they use their naïveté to excuse themselves of toying with humans…

"Is that what you really think of us?" asked a voice which interestingly didn´t startle me, I looked at the angel as it appeared on the middle of my room and stared at it with a poker face and sighed.

"Well, you tell me; am I wrong?"

"You know our purpose is not to toy with humans but achieve a-" said the angel interrupted by me.

"Better concept of the self. Yes, I know that… it still doesn´t change the fact of what you all are doing" I said as the angel smiled compassionately at me, I only rolled my eyes at the gesture "Knock it off"

"Does me looking like this bother you?" asked the angel.

"Actually yes, I don´t like hypocrites like you" I said flatly.

"Oh, does my human look suits you better?" asked the angel looking surprised "I didn´t know there was a difference"

"How can there not be, you are not the angel you claim to be; you are the demon of the personality you wear"

"The demon? Oh…" the angel murmured looking thoughtful for a minute "Hahaha!" released the angel with great amusement.

"My, isn´t that a sight coming from a stoic angel" I said mockingly.

"You are indeed right, I do prefer my human personality better" it said as it changed appearance to that of a tan, brunet with spiky hair boy and yellow eyes "Although I gotta say this look also pains me greatly"

"Oh… a look that an angel grieves, I wonder why, after all… aren´t you idolized here?" I said honestly curious about the angel´s discomfort.

"Haha, this look is an old one, this personality already existed in a past lifetime" said the angel "It pains me to look like a personality of mine and having to act like it" as it said this, he emphasized the ´´act´´.

"So, you are having problems growing accustomed to this body?" I asked.

"Haha, not in the least… I´m greatly familiarized with this one, it´s just… Whenever I look into the mirror, I can only see myself as an empty shell… there´s no personality there, it´s just me" the angel said.

"I see… so you find yourself lonely" I said, to think an angel would grieve over being lonely.

"I don´t feel that bad when I´m on my angel form, yet when I turn human… the feeling and grief strikes me tenfold" said the angel without any kind of hesitation.

"So, you don´t like being lonely… that and also seeing yourself as the shadow of what this personality once was" I said.

"Yes, you are incredibly accurate on this" said the angel "I could veil myself and bring back that personality which is lurking within but I cannot do that since its time was up centuries ago, it would be baffling to revive him and worst of all having to relive all of his suffering once more when there´s no need to…"

"Sounds troublesome" I said frankly "So you fill that void with being a slut?"

"Huh? Haha, I see where you are going" the angel said, though I kind of believe it's more his human side speaking when it´s like this; angels would never contemplate or so matters like sex at all, that´s a human thing "I wonder… talking in perspective of this one personality… his love has always been to one sole person and soul"

"Oh, what about you?" I asked intrigued.

"Things like Love, I cannot understand… I can comprehend a great deal of what it involves but not everything there is to it" it said.

"That's not what I asked"

"Huh? Well… personally, I believe I´ve been always attached to one particular soul but it´s different you know" said the angel.

"Yeah, kind of" I said "So, what are your plans now?"

"For the time being I have to dwell in this realm until I fulfill what I was sent to do, that includes waiting for my partner"

"Wait for your partner?" I asked slightly confused.

"Yes, the idiot suffered an accident and now I have to wait for him to grow a bit before I can get in touch with him" the angel said, I guess when they are humans they can experiment diverse emotions and express themselves just like an ordinary one.

"It´s always so odd whenever I speak to you" I said.

"Same here, I wouldn´t have come if it hadn´t been for that comment" said the angel.

"Oh, so you came here just because of that… what a sensitive angel you are" I said jeeringly.

"Well, I admit I can´t understand why some humans think ill of angels" said the angel then releasing a sigh.

"Well, there will always be people who disagree" I said flatly.

"Yeah, I guess you are right" said the angel "I also came out of curiosity"

"Huh?" I murmured looking lightly interested at him.

"Yes, you mentioned something about ´´artificial beings´´ didn´t you?" said the angel sounding intrigued.

"Right… just like the girls" I said a bit uneasy, I wasn´t okay by creating life that way.

"So you are worried about that being something forbidden?"

"The general idea is what I dislike" I said flatly.

"I see" said the angel simply "Well, why don´t you try doing what you think is best rather than worrying about those things? Worrying is not your style or so I believe"

"Maybe" I said "So, is your partner going to take that much?"

"Ah? What a way to change the subject…" said the angel as it pouted at me "Well, no, when he is three years old approximately I´ll go meet him"

"You sound eager"

"Well, how can I not? The moment I meet him I will start on my mission" said the angel.

"I see…" I murmured.

"For the time being I guess I can afford fooling around for a bit… so! If anything comes up be sure to give me a call" said the angel as it winked at me.

"Yeah" I said as it disappeared in the wink of an eye leaving behind sparkles, this one in particular sure is odd…

After the angel left I went towards the bathroom to take a hot bath, I needed to think things over… I wasn´t sure about what we were doing; the angel is right though, worrying is not my style.

After a bit, Jomo came back, but I wasn´t going to go greet him or anything, nobody interrupts me when I´m taking a bath… that is, if they treasure their lives.

"Her! Where are you?!" the monkey called, though amazingly enough his voice sounded childish, it made me start doubting it was Jomo after all… but who else would come here? I made him wait anyway and after like 10 minutes, I exited the bath groaning on the thought of not having enjoyed that bath as much as I had wanted to.

"What is it that you want?" I asked in a cold tone as I stepped on the lab, it didn´t look like Jomo… it was a boy with a monkey on his shoulder so, I thought everything but that… yet, regarding the environment and moment I decided to dismiss any kind of common sense and deemed him to be Jomo anyway.

"Well, I thought you´d be more cooperative, I finally came here to start the process and you receive me that way" said the kid who was supposedly Jomo.

"I´m the one who agreed to help you, without me your project would be a total failure so deal with it" I said as I stared him up and down, was this boy really Jomo?

"Jeez, how not to expect this… whatever" said the boy rolling his eyes along with the monkey.

"Before I lend you a hand… what´s up with the boy and circus monkey?" I asked frankly puzzled.

"I faced some issues along the way, I ended taking this boy as my helper" said apparently Jomo.

"Oh, I didn´t know you swung that way" I said while arching a brow, I then approached a tub where the mix was being made.

"Huh? Hey, I didn´t kidnap him… he accepted the request himself, I didn´t force him or whatever" said apparently Jomo.

"Yeah, that´s why you are controlling him instead of him talking" I said while shooting him a brief glare.

"Hey, it´s not my favorite method to do things! But I had to resort to this! And just so you know, he is aware that I am controlling him" said Jomo.

"Fine, whatever" I said "Did you bring the supposed miracle ingredient?"

"Jeez…" he mumbled as he pouted at me, he then looked surprised and nodded "Yeah, I do, what about you?"

"Here it is" I said showing a sparkling scale which made me think was a mermaid´s for some reason…

"Now, that´s a pretty nice ingredient you got there" said Jomo as he stared marveled at it "Throw it in the mix!"

"I´m on that… but just so you know, if anything happens with these, I´m not doing another" I said already fed up on the failed experiments.

"Huh? But these are for the sake of success!" said Jomo sounding a bit frustrated.

"I´m not going to watch the three kids blow up, melt or die in front of me again" I said firmly, this was the whole problem, I did not want to suffer this anymore; life isn´t a toy, we cannot afford to play with it like we were doing, yet… Jomo wasn´t getting it at all.

"Hey, you know that if a experiment fails is just a matter of trying once more! We can´t give up! The city´s fate is in our hands!" said Jomo.

"And so are the lives of the children we create, as they keep on dying as soon as they are born… this whole thing makes me feel like I´m aborting them over and over" I said while frowning at Jomo.

"You are not giving birth to them woman…" said Jomo looking at me dully.

"That´s not the point… the one we have more problems lately is the green one, he doesn´t last much and has blown up first than the others" I said sorrowfully, seeing children so young and innocent die before me was painful, even more when I knew we were the parents… "Just, don´t make me experience another death"

"Oh? Who knew you were such a sentimental person, I thought everything but that" said Jomo while smirking.

"You are evil you know" I said flatly.

"So are you, I´m not doing this by myself" said Jomo as he threw the ingredient into the mix.

"I won´t create another three if these three do not live, so you better do anything there is to save them, you hear?" I said seriously at him.

"Yeah, yeah" said Jomo as he motioned me to throw in my ingredient, though he spitted before I even raised my claw.

"Ugh…" I rolled my eyes. That was so gross… doesn´t matter I can stand a great deal of things… that one has never ceased to disgust me.

"Now, throw it your majesty" said Jomo jeeringly. I threw the scale into the mix and swirled my claw above to stir it, after a few seconds, the mix bubbled and steam started to envelop the room, it then produced a huge blast which gave result to three black figures barely distinguishable. The steam then faded and we remained awestruck at the outcome.

"Well, well… seems this was a success" said Jomo sounding pleased.

"Wait for it" I said waiting for what was common to be the children blowing up just when we thought everything had gone okay.

"Why are you staring at us that way?" the orange haired spoke.

"So? Is it safe to say it was success then?" asked Jomo.

"I guess…" I murmured as I stared warily at the three who were sitting naked inside; the orange haired looked dully at us while the blond looked curious and the raven haired looked confused.

"Now, now, these are a fine batch" said Jomo mildly irritating me by him calling them ´´batch´´ like if they were some sort of food or some other stuff.

"Batch?" questioned the orange haired; the blond frowned at Jomo in response while the raven haired looked around.

"Jomo…" I muttered while eyeing him angrily.

"Hey, it is true! Look" he said while picking the raven haired up, I swirled my claw and dressed him along with his brothers.

"Uh…." Murmured the raven haired uneasy and so then gripped the boy´s nose and chuckled.

"What´s going on?" asked the blond as Jomo looked at the raven haired with irritation.

"Your name will be Bruise" I said flatly at the blond.

"Huh? What? You didn´t answer me…" said the blond while staring troubled at me.

"You are Brazen, alright" said Jomo to the black haired as he chuckled still amused. The orange haired then floated towards Jomo and snatched his brother away from him.

"We are not toys" he said flatly releasing his brother aside of him, I then stared at him intrigued.

"You´ll be Barricade" I said simply, the orange haired looked at me confused.

"Barricade? Why…" he said cut off by me.

"You seem to be rather protective" I said making him stay thoughtful, the black haired then laughed.

"I like the name Barricade you know" said Brazen as he then jumped Bruise and hugged him tightly "I like the name Bruise too!"

"Ah? I still don´t understand what´s going-" said Bruise cut off by Brazen who grabbed him and started spinning around gleefully.

"So, mind explaining a little?" asked Barricade as he looked intently at his brothers.

"That is…" I started though Brazen threw Bruise against Barricade and then embraced both affectionately. This hadn´t happened before…

"So?" asked Barricade as he looked stoically at me while Brazen snuggled against them, who knew the green one would act like this…

"Don´t worry about that for now, I´ll explain later" I said "Just know you were created to give this guy some company"

"Huh?" murmured Barricade as he looked at the boy who looked at me confused, yet, I wasn´t lying, Jomo sure craved some company anyway.

"Ah? So he is our dad?" asked Bruise as he was almost strangled by Brazen.

"Effectively" I said simply, I then got jumped by Brazen who hugged my arm.

"Mommy!" exclaimed Brazen making me look troubled at him.

"Of course…." I said while looking away, I noticed Barricade suppressing a chuckle while Bruise openly giggled.

"Ehehee, I´m hungry!" exclaimed Brazen as he continued to hug my arm. As he said he was hungry, I made my way to the kitchen.

I heard Barricade and Bruise talking and sharing doubts and answers with each other as I walked into the kitchen, I then abruptly stopped as I felt something trail down my arm after Brazen had coughed brusquely.

"Huh…" I murmured looking at the black substance trailing down my arm.

"Ah! I´m sorry..." murmured Brazen as he released my arm and went to step aside of Barricade.

"This is…" I murmured a bit confused, was this what I thought was…? Though maybe that´s just how children like them vomit…

"Mom, I think that´s-" said Barricade cut off by me.

"I´ll go take a bath then, Jomo, feed your children" I said leaving for a bath, Jomo only uttered a ´What?!´ and so I left.

I went pleased towards the bathroom and so stayed inside for like 30 minutes, it was certainly a good omen the fact of these children turning out to be fine and not presenting any signs of instability. Wait… Brazen just… As soon as I recalled this I hurried out and appeared in the kitchen.

"Mom?" called Brazen who saw me as if I was crazy or something.

"You look sick or something…" said Bruise looking concerned at me.

"That´s her natural skin color boys" said Jomo jeeringly causing the others except for Barricade to laugh.

"I like mommy´s natural red skin" said Brazen with a grin as he stuffed his mouth with cereal.

"I think you boys first need to learn some table manners" I said while looking annoyed at the way Brazen ate.

"Table manners?" asked Brazen looking baffled, I then approached them and stood aside of Jomo.

"We´ll leave that for later, for now… I will explain in brief about you three being here" I said flatly.

"Finally!" said Bruise sounding happy, I then frowned and pointed at him.

"First of all, you may not interrupt be or you will be severely punished for it and I´m not joking so don´t try to press your luck" I said seriously, I then noticed them going completely silent not looking eager to interrupt me.

"You three were designed to fight and defeat the current enemy of the city of VileTown "The PowerPunk Girls" these girls are a trio of super powered heroines that rule the entire city under the commands of their creator "Oppressor Plutonium". The reason you were born is mainly for overthrowing these fiends from the power to restore peace in VileTown; although that´s a near impossible dream to achieve, we tried creating counterparts for them who could match or preferably overpower them to achieve our goal"

"I see…" murmured Barricade while looking thoughtful.

"Ah? We were born to fight? That´s odd, I don´t feel like fighting at all" said Brazen with a smile.

"I share his feelings" said Bruise looking troubled.

"For now yes" I said with a poker face making them look at me with curiosity.

"What do you mean?" asked the three.

"The city you are fighting for will stir your will to fight, that´s completely plausible" said Jomo "But do not worry about such matters, for now, we will show you the city; every corner of it will be known to you and so it will become your battle place"

"I understand" said Barricade "But I do feel more intrigued by the entire city thing"

"Yes, we will be on our way right now" I said as I enveloped us in red smoke teleporting to VileTown, we would explain everything; the city´s layout as well as its type of citizens would become known at least to Barricade who until know showed signs of being the one most suited to be the leader in the team.

After a brief explanation about the city areas, we went back home where Jomo gave them a tour and ushered them to their room, the reason why it had been just a brief look around was that they would understand the layout themselves as they explored, got lost and fought inside. A few weeks passed and so I noticed the closeness the trio showed, I sometimes ran into Brazen brushing Barricade´s hair while Bruise slept sideways against Barricade, other times Brazen played tag with them, curiously Barricade played as well though he got bored or fed up and resorted to stay reading in the living room. Other times Bruise and Brazen watched TV and Barricade surprised them with a dessert or well, he went right with them and sat in the middle to watch a movie, I found particularly interesting when they slept all cuddled up with a cover on the sofa; when they did that we had to carry them to their bed.

Barricade sometimes read upside down on the sofa with his hair cascading down the sofa, weird habit for a leader… and Bruise got an habit of scaring Brazen, if we had to study anything in this period of time I would suggest their interaction with each other; how to describe this? It produced me a warm and fuzzy feeling that made me smile warmly, thing that was rather odd.

One day, Bruise came to my bed and sneaked in, I didn´t notice until a bit later; it was rather confusing if not odd, why was he in my bed?

"Bruise… what are you doing here?" I asked the blond child who looked at me with half lidded, tired eyes.

"Mom… I had a nightmare, sorry, I just… uhm…" he murmured uneasy, maybe he felt I was going to scold him but to be true, it had been a cute thing, of course, anything is cute if it doesn´t involve peeing the bed.

"I see" I said flatly as I changed my claw into a human hand and petted his head confusing him "I´m not going to scold you for this"

"Mom…" murmured Bruise as he smiled warmly at me causing me to slowly return the gesture, he then giggled in response and I looked away "I like mom´s smile"

"Bruise…" I murmured kind of troubled. I suddenly felt aware of what was going on, it had troubled me several times before but watching these children always got me distracted and so I ended pushing away the thought to the deepest parts of my mind.

"Mom?" he murmured as he tilted his head in confusion. I embraced him grievingly as if I was about to lose him and that saddened me even more; when did I grow so fond of these boys? "Mom… you are making me feel sad, you are shining gloomy colors"

"Bruise, things are going to turn rough for you and your brothers but you should know that I just…" I whispered. Bruise could see the aura so he knew how I felt pretty well.

"What? What are you talking about?" asked Bruise sounding surprised. Seems I scared the poor child.

"It´s nothing Bruise, don´t worry about it" I said pushing the subject once more, I felt uneasy but there was no reason to trouble the poor child with my concerns.

"If you say so…" said Bruise looking at me baffled.

"Have your brothers woken up yet?" I asked simply.

"Ah? Well, I´m not sure… when I came here he was still asleep" said Bruise, he then went back to his room and so I followed.

"Nnn…" uttered Brazen as he snuggled against his brother, Barricade had an arm around Brazen so it looked like he was protecting the other… that or maybe resembled a teddy bear hugging back its owner.

"Cake…" murmured Barricade as he held Brazen a bit tighter and smiled probably imagining the dessert.

"Uh…" murmured Brazen as he woke up probably startled by his brother´s sudden action "Mom…?" he uttered in a low voice as he looked towards us.

"Seems you two slept really well" I said.

"Yes! We did!" exclaimed Brazen then letting out a yelp of surprise as Barricade pulled him towards him "Uh… Barricade…"

"Haha you two look so funny like that" said Bruise as he chuckled at the sight.

"Bruise, come join us hehe, Barricade emits warmth" said Brazen making me arch a brow in confusion.

"Eh? Emits warmth?" asked Bruise as he looked at Brazen in disbelief "Well, you know it´s a natural thing… Brazen, that´s called body heat"

"Ah? No, no" said Brazen as he shook his head "It´s different, come!" he said motioning Bruise to come closer.

"Uhmm okay…" murmured Bruise uneasy as he got on the bed and crawled close to Barricade.

"If you touch here you can notice he is burning" said Brazen as he moved Bruises hand above Barricade´s belly, they stood like that for like half a minute and then Bruise withdrew his hand surprised.

"Whoa! It´s true" said Bruise as he looked at Barricade with curiosity.

"See? Barricade is really hot- ah!" Brazen exclaimed again startled at Barricade´s sudden pull "Uhmm… I think Barricade is a heavy sleeper"

"You think…" murmured Bruise looking at Brazen sarcastically "It´s kind of funny how he is always so serious and when he is sleeping he is actually pretty funny"

"That´s true" said Brazen, they then looked towards the door surprised, seems Jomo came and was cooking something.

"Awesome! Breakfast!" exclaimed Bruise as he ran off excitedly.

"Hey! Wait for me!" shouted Brazen as he somehow managed to escape from his brother´s hold and dashed after Bruise.

"Uh…" murmured Barricade as he woke up.

"Well, who knew you were the last one to wake up" I said while staring at Barricade intrigued.

"Hmmm…" he uttered as he turned to see me "I can´t help it…" he said as he sat up and stretched.

"That´s fine, I´m not accusing you of anything" I said.

"Mmm… it smells of pancakes" said Barricade while doing a pleased expression, he then stood up from the bed and walked towards the kitchen.

"You can float you know" I said wondering why he didn´t flew instead of walk.

"I don´t like being lazy" said Barricade lastly, I then followed.

"Says the child who wakes up last" I said while smirking, Barricade ignored my comment and continued to the kitchen.

"Brazen! Brazen!" called Bruise who was moving his brother slightly; Brazen was leaning on the table while grabbing his stomach.

"Huh?" murmured Barricade taken aback by the sight of his brother suffering "Bruise, what happened?"

"I´m not sure, he suddenly started coughing and then he was like this… he keeps saying how he can´t move since it´s painful" said Bruise, concern apparent in his face. I looked down and noticed the small black puddle on the floor.

"Her… I´m afraid this is-" said Jomo interrupted by me.

"Prepare the lab" I said simply to Jomo, he then ran off. "Brazen…" I murmured as I approached him.

"Mom, I don´t feel well…" murmured Brazen as he sobbed and coughed, Barricade and Bruise were examining his brother who was leaning on the table; I lifted him up and carried him towards the laboratory where I laid him on a steel bed.

"Mom, is Brazen going to be fine…?" asked Bruise looking at his brother worried while Barricade held Brazen´s hand tightly as the other coughed brusquely.

"I can´t assure you anything…" I said a bit troubled, I wouldn´t be able to stand another death and worse his brothers grieving the loss of his brother.

"Nah…" uttered Brazen as the Chemical X waste trailed from his mouth "No… Barricade, Bruise…" said Brazen as he winced.

"Boys, I´m going to ask you to leave, go to the living room or somewhere else, I will do everything in my power to save your brother" I said as Barricade and Bruise stared at me speechless and possibly scared to death with my words.

"What…" murmured Barricade as he stared at his black haired brother on the steel bed.

"Barricade, Bruise, leave the room. Now" I said seriously and so the boys left the room reluctantly. I then turned to see Brazen who was groaning in pain as he tugged his shirt just above his heart.

"Her, what should we do?" asked Jomo.

"Save him, isn´t that obvious?" I said as I put a respirator on his mouth and locked his wrists and ankles firmly.

"I don´t know… maybe we should-" he said interrupted by me.

"Do not dare suggest that with Brazen listening, you hear?" I said while glaring at him, I then turned back to Brazen who was panting troubled "I will not let you die… you just started living, I will not allow you to go you hear?"

"Mom…" muttered Brazen in pain, he then stared at me and smiled at me as happy as he could.

"Brazen… please forgive our incompetence" I said to him, I then made a scalpel appear and changed my claw to a human hand.

"Eh…?" murmured Brazen as he widened his eyes lost in dread, I then started to cut his flesh from above his chest causing him to release a shrill scream of pain "No! No! don´t touch me!" cried Brazen as loud as he could as he stared tearfully as I moved the scalpel, I couldn´t null his pain or consciousness since I was afraid he would blow up the time I injected him something; I just had to bear his cries and screams to have any chance on saving him.

"I´m sorry Brazen, I have to do it like this otherwise we could lose you… try to bear with it please, we are not trying to kill you" I said to him and so I noticed him sobbing and closing his eyes looking defeated, I guess he was trying to say he was going to try.

"Mom…" muttered Brazen as I pressed the scalpel. I noticed him wincing and trying his hardest to repress his groans and tears from escaping. Somewhere along in the procedure I felt a deep feeling of sorrow, I couldn´t lose Brazen, he was just getting to know his brothers…

"Brazen… hang in there" I said as I felt myself about to burst into tears, I couldn´t afford to, I would be implying everything was lost and I didn´t want this child to think like that.

XXX

"I don´t get anything of what is going on…" murmured Bruise as I was lost in thought "What´s up with Brazen? He is going to be fine, right?"

"Bruise…" I murmured in my place on a sofa, I was lying down staring at the ceiling, watching Bruise had made me dizzy and the feeling of concern for Brazen didn´t ease it at all "Calm down, there´s nothing we can do right now but wait patiently"

"What? Don´t you care for what´s going on right now?"

"Of course I do… but pacing around in worry is as useless as lying down thinking about things" I said.

"Maybe but why do you look and sound so indifferent?!"Said Bruise with a frown "And with that scary scream from Brazen just a bit ago…"

"Bruise, don´t misunderstand" I said simply as I closed my eyes and sighed heavily.

"Huh?" he uttered confused as he stopped his nervous pacing and looked at me, I then turned around giving my back at him.

"I´m scared too, We´ve only been together for a few weeks now but I fear not being able to be with him more, therefore… I´m scared" I said honestly. I didn´t want to live on wondering how would it had been if Brazen had lived.

"Barricade…" murmured Bruise, he then walked up to me and took a seat beside me, as soon as he did that, I sat up and hugged him "I don´t want him to die…"murmured Bruise as he hugged me back.

XXX

"Ah… Ah…" uttered Brazen as he panted, he was doing a great effort standing this torture. "I can´t… mom…"

"Please, just be a bit stronger…" I said while gritting my teeth, I could feel the sweat trailing from a side of my forehead, I was covered in blood and chemical X waste; Brazen was fading and I couldn´t do much more… yet I struggled as much as I could to keep him alive.

"Be strong boy… if you die there´s not going to be any chance of…" Jomo said to him as he then bit his lip finding it hard to continue speaking.

"You two are blurry… I´m scared…" murmured Brazen as his eyes started to close. This wasn´t working, his heartbeats were erratic and I just continued being covered in blood and Chemical X waste.

"Brazen…" I muttered, I was angry at myself, was this it? Couldn´t this child be saved? Does this means our plans to give the city a better chance of life was stupid or maybe useless? This was just like the angels telling me that I should just give in. How many children are going to die so we are satisfied?

"Mom... I´m sorry, I´m so weak… aren´t I…" he managed to say before he finally passed out, as the monitor marked his heart had stopped, I stood speechless.

"The green child again didn´t make it…" said Jomo hurtfully.

"We were so close… yet Brazen, just…" I muttered as tears welled up in my eyes, I sobbed painfully trying my best not to cry even if it was futile now "What will I tell those poor boys?"

"Her, you shouldn´t beat yourself over-"

"What am I supposed to tell them?!" I said enraged. Tears continued piling up until they cascaded uncontrollably at me screaming angrily with all my might.

"Should we take this as a sign…" said Jomo softly. I didn´t say anything back, I only glowered at him "A sign to stop. The green one always dies first and you know how it´s said that it´s supposed to die last"

"…"

"Green is the color of hope is it not?" said Jomo lastly as I stared sorrowfully at Brazen who had apparently passed away.

Bringing hope to the city is meaningless? Does it mean the good guys will never win? Justice will not prevail? Then what are we supposed to do…? What…?

**A/N: Thank you all for reading the second chapter of PPGR: Regressions, chapters will be longer from this point onwards. I appreciate your patience guys and I will try to update as fast as Graphic Design allows me xD **


	3. Upsetting Memories

**A/N: ****In this story the "**….**" means a separation between the "Memory Lane" and "Reality" meaning that a series of "-" points out an interruption and a start or well the continuation.**

**The "XXX" means a separation in P.**

**The "000" means a restart which only happened in the déjà vu kind of chapter of the other story but just if it happens to occur here and so you know.**

**The " ***" means dream starting point or ending point.**

"**=" is for memory start point or ending point.**

**Note: Memories and dreams have text in italics**

**Warning! – This chapter is kind of rough on some parts… so bear with me, these stories are meant for a certain age group so if you are not good handling strong subjetcs or think this is a pink and rainbows kind of story, please stop Reading cause I didn´t write this for children x´D god, the thought on children Reading my stuff is scary… o_ó (but I doubt children or sensitive people would manage to get this far so… on with the story xD**

**Also! For people that don´t bother to read before they read… this arc comes after "PPGR: Reflections" so well, you are starting with the second part, if you don´t want to get confused then I suggest you starting with "PPGR: Reflections" (:**

**Chapter 3: Upsetting Memories**

As I tried to calm myself from what had gone on, and is going on right now… I noticed the sound of the door opening, I stood still shocked for a moment though I then turned to see Barricade who had walked inside and was floating midway towards where Brazen was.

"I never said you could come back" I simply said.

"I wanted to know how things were going, we heard screaming and so we got worried" said Barricade.

"You shouldn´t be here" I muttered as I gave my back to him.

"Her… what´s the matter…?" murmured Jomo confused as he stared warily at me.

"I´m sorry, I understand I shouldn´t uh…" murmured Barricade as he suddenly went speechless, he probably just realized the gruesome amount of blood and Chemical X smeared everywhere "What? How is Brazen?" he asked sounding desperate.

"I may not have made myself clear" I said in a dangerous tone, I was getting very irritated.

"Ah?" murmured Barricade noticing me tensing up.

"I said I didn´t allow you to come here, you may not go against me or else" I said as I glowered at him with derision.

"Huh…? Why…? Did things go that bad…?" he asked never minding the contempt in my voice.

"Don´t you dare defy my orders" I said angrily as I accidentally released a powerful force which threw him against the wall with great force.

"Ack!" he exclaimed as he hit the surface, he then knelt down and so stared fixatedly at the floor "I understand, please save him though" Barricade said this as he retreated from the lab.

"Her…. Why did you do such thing?" asked Jomo, he was surprised I had hit him.

"I didn´t mean to okay…" I said while letting out a sigh, Jomo approached me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, we´ll figure something out so don´t be so harsh on yourself" said Jomo trying to ease my burden.

"Figure something out? How can we solve this when Brazen just-" I said cut off by the sudden cougher behind us.

"Mom…" groaned Brazen, seems he came back to life for some reason… or his heart stopped temporally, what? How can that be?

"Brazen?" I called startled, I didn´t think I´d hear his voice again. I approached him hastily and resumed what I was doing before, of course, I didn´t fail to notice a certain part of his body shining; I took a peek at it and noticed the light which enveloped the damaged organs and incredibly restored them.

"Mom…" he uttered as he started sobbing and shedding tears.

"I´m with you Brazen, hang in there… you will live with your brothers and nothing like this will ever happen again" I said with no certainty of that, yet it was so he calmed down, I could feel his intense desire to live and that was killing me; he was terribly desperate.

XXX

"Barricade, how was Brazen?" asked Bruise, I just shook my head, it couldn´t be wrong to say Brazen had died with the way mom looked…

"Bruise, Brazen is…" I said painfully, I couldn´t accept this, I didn´t want to.

"No… don´t tell me that he is…" murmured Bruise sounding scared; I then saw how he dashed towards the lab.

"Bruise, don´t go in there!" I exclaimed alarmed, he couldn´t see that… he just wouldn´t stand that.

"What is this…" murmured Bruise terrified, I approached him and so I got to see the horrible sight of Brazen crying and an immense quantity of blood cascading down to the floor along with a black liquid…

"Bruise, come on, we shouldn´t see this" I said as I tried to pull him away. Bruise covered his mouth and ran away probably towards the bathroom to vomit; I couldn´t blame him, the sight was sickening. The mixture of feelings that it produced me just ended making me want to throw up too, but I had to bear with it, I had to be strong for Bruise…

I went back to the living room and sat down with my head hanging and my hands over my knees, I darted to the lab´s direction and back to my knees, only one thing filled my mind ´´Please, let him be okay, I want my brother to be fine´´ that´s the only thing I had in mind and the only one I needed; I felt so useless…

After some time, Bruise came back and sat beside me, he looked frustrated and nervous as he sat with his legs against his chest. The sight of Bruise on the verge of crying made me even sadder and so I put an arm around him and pulled him closer, we stood like that for a while until the lab´s door opened abruptly startling us. We peered at the door expectantly and so Her came out cradling Brazen in her arms.

"Mom! How is he?!" exclaimed Bruise as we stared at Brazen´s unconscious face. Her approached us and placed Brazen delicately on the sofa, he was wrapped up with a cover so it wasn´t wrong to say he looked like a baby that way.

"It went fine boys, you may breathe now" said mom "He can only be here for a while, he needs to rest"

"Thank god!" exclaimed Bruise as he burst into tears of happiness; I hugged Bruise equally relieved that Brazen had turned out fine.

"Boys, just have in mind that Brazen cannot play roughly even if he wants to for at least two months, we want to make sure he is seriously okay" said mom, she looked equally content.

"Don´t let Her scare you, there´s a 99% guarantee Brazen will be fine, but just in case, take care of him for a while" said dad.

"Of course, I´ll always look after them" I said.

" I´ll go take a nap, I´ll come for Brazen in a while" said mom as she walked away to her room.

"I will go take a look around VileTown, I´ll be back in some hours boys" said dad as he walked towards one of the teleportation panels on the middle of the house.

After some minutes, Brazen groaned as he woke up and looked at us with half lidded eyes.

"Hey…" Brazen murmured as he smiled cheerfully at us.

"You scared us dammit!" exclaimed Bruise at him in a scolding tone.

"I´m sorry…"

"How are you Brazen?" I asked him, he turned to see me with a curious expression on his face and then grinned.

"Just fine, thank you- ow…" said Brazen as he then winced "My chest and tummy hurts…"

"I can imagine" I said while smiling at him.

…

"The memory stopped…" I murmured unsure of what had just happened, in that moment I heard how someone appeared behind me.

"Hey, Rurika is not happy with what´s going on with Mitsuki… mind telling me when he´ll be okay?" said Matt. How did he even get here?

"You know… you are not supposed to be coming here, in fact, how come you got here?" I asked seriously wondering about it.

"Huh? You placed a teleportation panel in my room and in Mitsuki´s, seems you put them so visible since you regulate who can activate them and who can´t" Matt said while smirking "Nicely thought"

"Oh, yeah… I did do that" I said, seems it had slipped my mind now that I was looking into the boys memories "How is Barricade doing?"

"Ah? You think I went to see him?" asked Matt looking skeptically at me.

"Yeah, so, how was he?"

"Jeez, nothing escapes you…" he said while pouting at me "That boy should be moved here, I don´t think he´ll get out from the comma any time soon"

"Oh, that´s interesting, why should he be here?"

"Man… because, he is too exposed there" said Matt flatly "He should be here, that will ease his brothers concern as well"

"Hmm… yeah, I guess I should bring him here then" I said, though I couldn´t do such thing since the Memory Lane took too much energy and another action would completely dissolve it.

"I understand" said Matt puzzling me.

"Huh?"

"I can see it in your face, you can´t do anything with that thing going on; I´ll go get the boy. Keep doing what you are doing" said Matt as he walked away.

"For some reason the memory was interrupted" I said.

"Interrupted? Why don´t you skip that one for now and move to something else? You can look back into it later" said Matt.

"Right… that might work, hope it does though" I said.

"Haha, anyways, I´ll back soon" he said as he disappeared, it was a nice idea to try; moving to another and then trying again later.

I remember this though… that time where Brazen died once, I´m sure he died yet he was brought back to life; how can that be possible? Maybe Brazen is indeed a monster…

"Huh…" I murmured as the image of Brazen as a child appeared in my head, he was giggling amused. Brazen wasn´t a monster, he couldn´t be… whatever I was thinking, I wouldn´t destroy him whatsoever; so if he was dying now… would it be for real? If he restored himself at a young age, wouldn´t he do so again?

After pondering this, I went back to trying the memory lane to work once more, as I closed my eyes and concentrated, I saw the scene of a blond child sleeping in his room. Seems it did skip the previous memory for some reason… but I would go back to it later.

…

Morning came rapidly and as I saw the pretty bright orange sky from the window, I then stretched and walked away towards the kitchen to do breakfast; mom and dad sleep until late on Saturdays so I wake up to do it for them. Dad works as a Journalist, he says he is one of the best; he is always carrying a camera around taking photos.

He sometimes startles me when taking pictures since he pops out of nowhere, he takes many of me for some photo album of his or so he says… Mom works as a nurse at Necromat Medical Center and arrives pretty late leaving me alone with dad sometimes, when dad is not home, I stay alone watching TV or doing something like cleaning the house; I´d always loved to clean!

I was doing pancakes for a while know, I always use a stool so I can reach the stove to cook, though as usual my dad crept behind me and wrapped his arms around my hips and gave me a firm squeeze from behind.

"Ah! Dad! Don´t do that!" I said surprised as he lifted me up along with the frying pan, the pancake almost fell because of that!

"How´s my son this morning, hmmm?" my dad whispered in my ear, that really tickled and I didn´t like it…

"Dad! Put me down! I can burn you with the frying pan you know…!" I said as he put me back on the stool I was previously on.

"Oh Miharu, loosen up a little! Don´t you like me carrying you?" asked dad as he held my shoulders lightly massaging them.

"Not when you startle me that way…" I said as I groaned "Go sit, the pancakes will be done soon"

"Dying to eat them" he said as he kissed my cheek and went to take a seat.

"Geez dad, you always eat them, it´s nothing new you know" I said as I smiled troubled at him, I then got surprised at the sudden photo he took "Stop doing things all of a sudden!"

"I can´t help it, my son looks adorable in any photo I take!" he said sounding happy.

"Geez dad… even my classmates find you weird" I said as I walked towards him and placed the pancake on top of the pile, he took one and put it on his plate.

"Weird? How?" he asked me as he looked at the piece of pancake on his fork.

"I don´t understand the meaning but they keep calling you a pedophile… I don´t like how it sounds so I get angry at them…" I said while pouting at the memory, Makoto had told me my dad acted funny but he never elaborated on how as for the others… they only look at me with pitiful stares.

"Haha those classmates of yours don´t understand our father- son bond, they are jealous cause they don´t have their parents doing a photo album of them" said my dad as I walked back to the stool, though I turned to see him with curiosity as he said that. I was then pulled closer to him and so he hugged me.

"Ah but…" I murmured uneasy about what he was saying, though I was once more startled by him; he suddenly fondled my butt and so I yanked away really puzzled.

"Dad! What was that?!" I exclaimed seriously confused, he then chuckled.

"See? That´s the kind of affection they don´t understand" said dad.

"Ah?" I murmured looking at him dubiously.

"Father-son bonding is really, really intimate… it´s normal they don´t understand, they are so young" he said, I then looked away still uneasy.

"If you say so… though I don´t think I can be ever fine with that…" I said finding myself freaked by such touching, was I wrong on refusing such contact? I started feeling guilty, if dad says it´s normal… why did I react in such way?

"Are you alright, Miharu?" he looked at me as he resumed eating.

"I´m sorry dad… I didn´t mean to react like that" I said noticing him smirking.

"Well, well… you´ll just have to make it up to me later then" he said as he kept smirking.

"Ah?" I murmured confused, what did he mean?

"Haha, I´m just joking son, you don´t have to make it up to me" said my dad as took a zip from his coffee.

"But I…"

"If you want to make it up to me though, you may want to wear some outfits for more photos" he said as he chuckled.

"Ah? Well, if you want to then fine" I said, I didn´t want my dad to get angry at me so I was willing to apologize in any way necessary.

"Oh? Really?" he asked looking skeptical, I then nodded slowly.

"Yeah…" I said then distracted by my mom walking in and smiling gently at us.

"Good morning dears" said my mother as she walked in.

"Good morning mom!" I said as I ran and hugged her, she then kissed my forehead and so took a seat.

"Good Morning, Miharu" she said as she smiled gently at me; Dad then cleared his throat gaining our attention.

"Rosette, you came late yesterday, you need to sleep" said my dad.

"Oh Tatsuya… it´s not that bad, I can´t be oversleeping, it´s not healthy" said my mom.

"Yes, but neither is not sleeping enough" said my dad as mom looked at him troubled. I gave mom a pancake too and then sat between the two.

"It´s so sweet of you to be doing breakfast for us, sweetie" said mom to me "It´s always pretty tasty"

"Thank you! I enjoy cooking for you both" I said happily.

"Miharu, would you go get these at the store?" my dad asked me as he handed me a list.

"Not a problem! I´ll go after breakfast!" I said as I kept it away.

"What a good boy you are" said my dad seemingly pleased.

"I´ll go with you sweetie" said my mom as she smiled gently at me.

"No Rosette, you need to rest, your health is quickly deteriorating" said my dad as he looked concerned at my mom.

"Oh Tatsuya, it´s not a bother for me, I can surely go" my mom said.

"Don´t worry mom! I can go for these on my own!" I said "I agree with dad, you stay here"

"But Miharu… will you be alright? I can really go…" said mom as she looked worried at me.

"Leave it all to me!" I said while grinning.

"Okay sweetie… but remember to be careful" said Mom.

"I will, mom!" I yelled in response, I then hurried to finish my food and left towards the store.

As I made my way to the store, I noticed a truck outside of the house aside of ours; It was weird since it had been empty for years.  
So eventually, my curiosity took over me and so I went to take a look. I walked towards the front door though I came face to face with a boy slightly taller than me. He watched me momentarily before offering me a cheerful smile.

"Hello there! I´m new here, my name is Harumi, nice to meet you uhmm…" Harumi said sounding a bit troubled. He had chocolate colored hair and honey colored eyes and was mildly tanned.

"My name is Miharu, I´m your next door neighbor" I said with a smile.

"I see… that´s great!" said Harumi while nodding. A scary voice then broke the happy moment though…

"Harumi! I told you to get the beers you fucking retard!" a man shouted, it made me nervous just to listen to it…

"I won´t take long dad!" yelled Harumi back, he then looked at me kind of annoyed "I´m sorry you had to hear that"

"Don´t worry about it…" I said a bit nervous.

"Harumi… I´m going to make you miserable if you don´t go now!" his dad shouted…

"Ah!" Harumi exclaimed startled "I´m sorry, I have to go to the shop now, his threats mean business" he said while walking away a bit.

"Really? That´s nice, I have to go there as well" I said happily "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure, I don´t mind" said Harumi, we then left to the store in a hurry. Seems we have similar dads… though my dad hasn´t yelled at me…

"Your dad sure sounded angry…"

"Yeah, I´m already used to his attitude" said Harumi a bit down, he then turned to see me with a gentle smile "What about yours, is he an ogre too?"

"Hmm… well, no, not really… though…" I said trailing off wondering what to say, I had thought on something but I really wondered if it was important to mention; after a bit of thinking I decided to shrug it off.

"Ha,ha, you are so lucky" said Harumi as we crossed a street, the store was not far away, we only needed to cross another street and we would find it on the corner.

"How old are you?" I suddenly asked.

"AAh? I´m 6 years old" he responded looking curiously at me "What about you?"

"I´m 5 years old" I said.

"Oh! So you are a year younger than me" he said strangely excited.

"Ah? Is it such good news?" I asked since I noticed his strange smile.

"For me it is, you see… I´ve always been the youngest everywhere I go, It´s really nice to find someone younger than me for a change" said Harumi.

"Ha,ha, I see… do you have any siblings?"

"A younger sister, well, a baby sister" said Harumi.

"Aw! That´s so cute!" I said happily, I´ve always found babies to be so cute!

"Do you like babies, Miharu?" asked Harumi while looking at me with a smile.

"Yes! I certainly do!" I said giving a hard nod.

"Do you have any siblings?" asked Harumi.

"Nope, I´m an only child" I responded.

"I see… so you´re an only child. that must be nice" said Harumi with a sad expression on his face.

"Ah? Well, I´ve always wondered how it would be to have siblings"

"It´s not that good" said Harumi making me look confused at him, I then noticed him entering the store. After some seconds, he peeked out and looked sarcastically at me "Here it is! Hurry!" he said then retreated back inside.

"Ah! Yeah!" I said walking in, I then went to browse for the stuff dad asked me to buy. After a bit, Harumi called for me but I wasn´t done yet…

"Miharu, what´s the matter? Can´t find what you are-"he said silencing himself momentarily "Uhmm… Miharu, this is the adult part of te tore, we shouldn´t be here…" Harumi said kind of embarrassed "What are you looking for anyway?"

"Well according to this list… it´s mint condoms-" I said as I took a box though as I did Harumi snatched it while interrupting me.

"Whoa! Condoms?! Miharu, why…" he said while looking concerned at me.

"It´s not a big deal… I always buy them but I can´t find them, think they ran out?" I said while looking curiously at him.

"Miharu… your dad seriously sent you to buy that?" asked Harumi sounding shocked.

"Yes… is it wrong?"

"Of course it is! Let me see that!" said Harumi as he then snatched the list "Oh dear god…" he murmured after a while.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Condoms, batteries, Ap pills, beer, cigarettes… lube, chips, Ice cream" read Harumi "This is the strangest list I´ve ever read… how are you going to carry all this anyway?"

"I always manage somehow" I said.

"Well, at least I´m help to help you but still, not even my dad…"

"What did he ask you to buy?" I asked him.

"Beer and donuts" said Harumi making me blush for some reason.

"Ah, just that?" I said while looking down embarrassed "I feel awkward for some reason now…"

"Do you buy all that, always?" asked Harumi.

"Nope, just when dad runs out of it" I said with a grin shrugging of my embarrassment.

"I can´t believe this…" said Harumi "What else do you buy?"

"Huh? Well… some other days, I buy wine, soap, ingredients, bread, medicines; stuff like that" I said "I can´t seem to remember that well, but I do buy condoms daily"

"Has your father done anything to you, Miharu?" Harumi asked suddenly.

"What? No, he hasn´t, why would he?" I asked confused.

"Oh that´s nice, glad to- whoa! Miharu, what ar you doing?!" I heard him exclaim as I snatched the box back and went towards the counter to ask the person about the condom.

"Excuse me, are there any others similar to the ones mint flavored?" I asked him as I showed him the condoms; the man then arched a brow and stared at me in disbelief.

"Boy, I doubt your little thing can fill it" said the man, I then noticed Harumi looking agape at the man.

"Eh?" I uttered confused, I turned to see Harumi to ask what was wrong but he looked away uneasy while blushing.

"You can try them but you should wait a couple of years before trying that" said the man making me look intently at him confused. Harumi then took me by the wrist and pulled me with him to the snack area looking embarrassed.

"You can´t ask that!" He finally said, I knew he was struggling with something he wanted to say…

"Boys start stuff so early now…" said the man sounding confused too and kind of indifferent.

"Huh?! No Mister we are not- urgh!" exclaimed Harumi frustrated, he then kept quiet and silently helped me with the rest of the things on my list; after we paid then we left the store.

"Hey, thanks for your help!" I said sincerely.

"No problem… though tell your dad to get these himself… a child shouldn´t buy these…" said Harumi sounding a bit irritated.

"You seem to know a lot, how?" I asked seriously curious. Harumi was my age technically and he already knew so many things I didn´t understand…

"Well… uhmmm…" Harumi murmured uneasy making a really sorrowful expression, as if he was about to burst into tears by just recalling though before anything of that could happen, I only changed the subject.

"Anyway, want to come to my home? It would be fun!" I said happily.

"Sure! I just need to drop the beer at home" said Harumi.

"We can go watch movies or play videogames…" I said as I wondered what else we could do.

"Unbelievable" said Harumi then releasing a sigh.

"Ah?" I murmured confused, Harumi was deep red.

"It´s nothing… just that I can´t believe you asked that man about the condoms…"

"Harumi, do you what the condoms are for?" I asked him honestly wondering about it.

"Eh? That is…" murmured Harumi nervously "It´s for… ugh… Miharu! You are so dirty!" He exclaimed and then ran away embarrassed.

"Ah! Harumi…" I murmured while looking troubled towards the way he took. As he disappeared, I felt a raindrop splashing on my head "Eh? It can´t be…" As soon as I looked up, the rain poured down with force soaking me fully.

It was futile to run now so I only walked calmly towards home; that until a voice suddenly spoke to me making me stop.

"Hey kid…" someone said, I turned in the direction of an alley.

"Ah?" I murmured curiously, I then approached the alley and walked in hesitatingly "Is someone here?" a I asked that, someone jerked me forwards and so I let out a short yelp; I was then put against the wall.

"What a foolish boy you are" said the one who had called me. The person turned out to be a tall man with yellow eyes. I stared speechless as I felt how his stare dug deep into me.

"Ah! Don´t hurt me…" I said as I looked away uneasy. It was my fault… I just can´t seem to ignore my curiosity.

"Your body is perfect to experiment with" As he said this, he ripped open my T-shirt startling me.

"No! No! Let go of me!" I shouted as I frantically attempted to escape him; he had a scalpel against my chest, what was he trying to do?

"Why don´t we do an experiment? When the time is right, I´ll meet you again" he said while smirking at me.

"Huh? What do you- ah!" I yelped as he bit my neck "Nngh… uh… No…"

"Miharu!" I heard Harumi shouting but I couldn´t do anything as the guy bit me. After a bit, the guy released me and then stared at me.

"You have such interesting personalities, I will be glad to steal you away; after all, they don´t need you, do they?" as he said this, the guy touched my ear and massaged my earlobe causing me to shiver in dread.

"Miharu, come on!" exclaimed Harumi, he then came running and kicked the man who disappeared before Harumi touched him; that leading to Harumi falling on top of me.

"Harumi…" I murmured as I stared at Harumi on top of me.

"Miharu… are you alright?" asked Harumi.

"Harumi…I…I…" I mumbled as I continued shivering.

"Hey, I´m sorry… I shouldn´t have left…" murmured Harumi as he moved away from me and helped me up.

"I´m cold" I said as I tried to hide my shock.

"Miharu…" murmured Harumi while looking at me concerned, he then embraced me tightly "Don´t worry, you can cry"

"Eh…?" I uttered as I widened my eyes in surprise.

"I won´t laugh at you for crying, it was scary, wasn´t it?" said Harumi. As he said this to me, I started to sob.

"But boys shouldn´t cry, my dad says so…" I said as I hiccupped.

"You are human… you will cry sometimes so don´t worry" said Harumi as he squeezed me slightly causing me to cry at the gesture.

"Harumi…" I w-was s-so scared…" I said while sobbing and hugging him tightly.

My cries were silenced by the sound of the rain; after that, we went back home, Harumi dropped his things at his home and so he stayed over to sleep at my house.

…

"Well, well…did you find anything useful?" a voice spoke breaking my concentration and the image before me.

"What brings you here?" I said mildly irritated at the interruption.

"What is it that you would like to find? This is a fine example of privacy invasion" Matt said while chuckling.

"Seriously, why are you here?"

"I don´t recommend you prying into their memories, you will face a lot of ugly events" he said while looking at me with a serious expression.

"Oh… Are you saying you know?"

"Of course I do, plus when I kiss I can know the details" he said while winking. That had to be a joke "But seriously though, don´t wander in too much, there are a lot of things that can trouble you"

"Does that include-" I said cut off by him.

"Yes, it does include him… but I have a feeling that Makoto´s will be harder to take" He said.

"I see… well, can you scram?" asked him angrily, I was too annoyed for being silenced.

"It was just a warning, I don´t want to see you regret it afterwards" he said.

"I have to, I don´t like it but I…"

"You are desperate, am I wrong?" said Matt in an indifferent way "Hope that helps you. Anyway! I brought the orange haired, you might find this interesting.

"Find what interesting?" I asked. mild curiosity in my voice. I turned around and found myself staring at Barricade, though… his body had shrunk, he was back being 5 years old.

"I wonder how he changed back to being a child…" murmured Matt "I´ll take care of him, you go back to that"

"I´m going to have to ask you to give him a bath" I said.

"Huh?" murmured Matt puzzled "What? I cannot give him a bath…"

"Oh really… why not?"

"He can´t be without a respirator for long you know…" said Matt looking troubled.

"If that´s the issue then cover his mouth and nose with this" I said handing him a device.

"This is…?" he said after staring at it.

"A special tool for this kind of situation, give him a proper bath" I said as he stared fixatedly at the device.

"Ah… okay, just because he is a child…" said Matt while as he left with Barricade on his arms.

After this, I went back to the memory lane; it was highly improbable that the memory would continue.

…

I woke up with a really high fever, Harumi was aside of me but even though we were both soaked yesterday, I was the only one sick.

"Uh…" I murmured as I saw Harumi aside of me, he was fast asleep… I got up while panting; I had to go make breakfast…

I walked towards the kitchen and gathered the ingredients, after that, I pulled the stool close to the stove and so stepped on it, I planned on doing French toast.

"Good morning Miharu…" said my father as he approached me.

"Dad, I´m not in the mood for your jokes right now" I said as I panted heavily and felt his arms wrap around me.

"Oh, you are not in the mood huh" said dad sounding interested on what I was saying "And there are times where you are?" he asked confusing me.

"Huh? What do you mean with that…" I murmured as I stood puzzled. Dad crept a hand inside my shirt and stroke my chest in a circular motion "Dad… what are you doing…" I said as I panted, I could feel his cool hand easing the hotness I felt though it didn´t do much difference.

"Oh? You like this Miharu?" asked Dad as he pressed me against him and continued stroking my chest, I kept panting finding it hard to breathe for some reason.

"Dad… what… Nn…" I uttered, why was he doing that?

"Miharu!" exclaimed Harumi suddenly, my dad gave a step back and watched Harumi approaching me; Harumi stared at my dad and then turned to face me; his aura was a muddy red color, I could feel the anger building up inside him for some reason…

"Harumi…? I thought you were asleep…" I said looking concerned at him.

"Yeah, I was but I got surprised to see you weren´t aside of me" said Harumi "Miharu, you are red… why don´t you take a seat? I´ll do the breakfast"

"Huh? But I cannot let you do that…! You are a guest here, you shouldn´t be doing this…" I said concerned, I feared he wouldn´t come back after having to do such thing.

"Don´t worry, Miharu, you are sick. I´ll keep coming, so don´t worry, okay?" he said with a gentle smile though I was puzzled about the red aura that told me he was anything but happy. I slowly nodded and went to take a seat then watching him do the French toast I was going to make.

"Oh…" murmured my dad. I looked at my dad and noticed he had a weird smirk on his face as he stared at Harumi and his aura was bright red with black… does he always stares that way?

"Dad…?" I called him while looking seriously curious to know what he was thinking.

"Harumi, as my son´s friend, I´d be happy to ask your help for a photo shooting, what do you think?" asked my sad suddenly. Harumi stood still without moving for a bit, he then turned to see my dad with a confused expression.

"Photo shooting?" asked Harumi.

"Yes, I believe you would be a nice addition to the photos" said my dad making Harumi look worried.

"I don´t know… I don´t like being photographed" said Harumi.

"Is that so? With such cute face I think is a shame" said my dad making Harumi turn around uneasy for some reason.

"Is that so… is that like frequent?" asked Harumi sounding nervous.

"Not really, but when there´s photo shooting we do take our time" said my dad making Harumi tense up. I wonder what´s going on…

"I see… sounds fun, maybe I´ll try that another time…" said Harumi in a low voice, he didn´t sound cheerful as one would expect.

"Haha, if you are interested be sure to let me know" said my dad, he then grabbed a newspaper that was on the table ending the conversation.

"Harumi, should I help you with something?" I asked him though he shook his head slowly and turned to see me with a troubled smile.

"No, it´s fine Miharu" said Harumi, he then went back to focus on the French toasts.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it, Harumi…" I said sincerely, I then waited for a while until he was done; he grabbed the plate with french toasts and put them on the table.

"Hope you like it, Miharu, it´s been a while since I last did French toasts" said Harumi as he took a seat beside me.

"I´m sure I will" I said then nodding happily. I started eating, the atmosphere was kind of awkward and I couldn´t help but wonder what was going on with Dad and Harumi…

After breakfast I went back to the bed, Harumi followed me and sat on my left, he hugged the covers comfortably and leaned against the pillow happily.

"Ah… nothing like being in a bed in a winter morning" said Harumi as he sighed, I turned to see him and smiled troubled at him.

"Harumi… it´s not healthy to be in bed so much…" I said as I panted heavily.

"Huh? Well, you are sick so you need to be here anyway; I might join you as well you know" said Harumi as he buried himself with the covers.

"Jeez, you are so lazy…" I said as I looked at him sideways.

"And hey, you can´t blame me! You have the most comfortable bed ever!" said Harumi as he popped his head from under the covers, he then looked shocked and went back inside "Too cold for me, I better stay here"

"Oh…" I murmured. I released a giggle though it was cut really short for my eyesight becoming blurry.

"Miharu? Should I bring you something?" asked Harumi, I only looked at him in a troubled matter.

"No, you already did enough Harumi…" I said to him as I then closed my eyes.

"Did enough? Yeah, right! I´ll bring you a bowl of hot soup, wait here for a sec!" said Harumi as he got off the bed and ran to the kitchen.

"Soup huh… I wonder if I bought any" I said wondering about it as I fell asleep in my dizziness.

…

"Hey, I put their brother in the middle bedroom, I had no idea where-" said Matt cut off by my glare, why was he interrupting me again?

"Matt… you better have a decent reason to have shattered the memory lane once more" I said still glaring at him.

"Well… actually, the kid woke up for like a minute and then drifted off once more" said Matt looking a bit annoyed, seems something happened back in the bathroom.

"Oh? He woke up from the comma?" I asked sounding sincerely intrigued.

"Yeah…" he said while looking away "He looked terribly confused and asked for his brothers, he then noticed he was naked and got really embarrassed as well as violent; he sure is feisty"

"Oh? So did you give him the bath or not?"

"Huh? Well yes, after he yelled at me, he stared at me like if he was seeing a ghost and held my face like if I was some sort of ornament… he then drifted off" said Matt looking confused beyond words "That kid sure is weird"

"Is that so…" I said looking indifferently at him.

"Yeah! Though, he was kind of cute, heh" he said with a self satisfied smirk "Not that I would do anything to a child so young"

"That´s questionable" I said flatly.

"Huh?! Woman, I would never hurt a child that way!" He said sounding indignant, I just looked at him dully.

"Go on, you might bite your tongue" I said while smirking, that would be funny alright.

"Jeez, anyway… won´t you come see him or something?" asked Matt.

"Huh? No, babysit him some more" I said simply.

"Eh? That sounds lame… but alright, I´ll take care of the kid" said Matt "He´ll owe me something big, heh" he said as he walked away.

All these interruptions really annoyed me, but for the sake of knowing the truth I had to continue looking. That is, if Matt apparently allowed me to.


	4. Distorted Reality

**A/N: ****In this story the "**….**" means a separation between the "Memory Lane" and "Reality" meaning that a series of "-" points out an interruption and a start or well the continuation.**

**The "XXX" means a separation in P. O. V**

**The "000" means a restart which only happened in the déjà vu kind of chapter of the other story but just if it happens to occur here and so you know.**

**The " ***" means dream starting point or ending point.**

"**=" is for memory start point or ending point.**

**Note: Memories and dreams have text in italics**

**Also! For people that don´t bother to read the A/N before the actual story… this arc comes after "PPGR: Reflections" so well, you are starting with the second part, if you don´t want to get confused then I suggest you starting with "PPGR: Reflections" (:**

**Lastly, I´m submitting pictures at "enthriex" (deviantart account), I may not update quickly (here in fanfiction) but you can always look at the pictures related to the story over there ouo I have journals based on what the Mayoress says for those interested in Fractal VileTown´s government and stuff, Mayoress will be appearing at the end of this arc.**

**Chapter 4: Distorted Reality**

"So, anything interesting yet?" asked Matt as he approached me. I kept changing memories looking for the continuation of the first memory; it had been a fruitless search.

"I cannot find the continuation…" I said irritated.

"Hmm… rather than interrupting the memories over and over; why don´t you engulf entirely into it and watch the memories in order?" suggested Matt.

"Wait a second… you, Tell me where are the dark concentrations in the pictures" I said as an order.

"Huh? The dark concentrations? Like I´d know how to do that…" he said sounding troubled.

"Doesn´t matter if you know or not, just point to a certain part of the pictures you find interesting" I said.

"Eh? Alright…" he said in resignation. I showed him several pictures and asked him to tell me if anything dragged his attention.

"This is…" said Matt looking tense "Keep them coming…"

"Right…" I said changing the pictures over and over, Matt´s reaction didn´t change.

"Stop!" he exclaimed as he held his head like if he had a headache.

"Huh?" I murmured intrigued by his reaction.

"All of the pictures are equally disturbing" said Matt as he looked at me "But it might be just my imagination"

"What did you see?"

"Is it me or are there are eyes everywhere?" asked Matt he looked sort of nervous. I looked at it intently but I didn´t see the eyes he was speaking of.

"I think it´s just you" I said.

"Oh…" he murmured "Haha, see? I really don´t know" he said while grinning.

"Well then, I will continue watching the memory lane"

"Haha, do as you may" said Matt.

"Please, go look after Barricade" I said.

"Certainly, but I´ll ask for something in exchange" said Matt.

"I´m listening" I wondered intrigued on what someone like him could want.

"I want… an opportunity to kiss Makoto" he said as he smirked to himself, I stared indifferently at him for the sudden perverted request.

"Seriously…?" I muttered "What the hell?"

"You keep making it impossible for me…" he said sounding annoyed.

"Why do you want to kiss him anyway? You are so stubborn"

"Did you forget? I said it was-" he said interrupted by me.

"Alright… I won´t do anything to stop you next time" I said as I sighed in resignation.

"Fine, I´m good with that" said Matt satisfied.

"Go look after Barricade" I said. Matt then nodded and left.

I turned around and focused on the memory lane, if I couldn´t find anything in 3 tries, then I would watch the memories in order.

….

It was early in the morning when I woke up and went towards the kitchen, Miharu had been absent for several days and I wanted to give him something he would like and make him feel better.

"A pot… pot…" I murmured as I looked in the shelves.

"Makoto? Sweetheart, what are you trying to make?"

"Mama? I want to make potato porridge!" I said as I kept looking for the things.

"Hahaha is that so? I knew it was odd to find you up so early" said Mama as I found a net with potatoes in the fridge. I pushed the fridge´s door closed and lifted the potatoes up to the kitchen counter "Oh, Makoto… let me help you, mommy is here for you" said Mama as she took a bowl "Go play in the TV room, Mommy will tell you when it´s done"

"Ah! But Mama… I want to help cook something for Miharu!" I said as I pouted at her.

"Oh Makoto… well then, what about doing the lemonade?" Mama asked as she took the ingredients out and placed them on the table.

"Okay! I´ll do the lemonade" I said to her, though before I grabbed a lemon I heard my baby sister crying "Ritzey?"

"Oh, she must be hungry… Makoto, instead of doing the lemonade, would you feed her?" Mama said as she gave me a baby bottle.

"Sure!" I said as I nodded and ran upstairs towards Ritzey´s cradle.

"Makoto, be careful, alright?" Mama said referring to my sister.

"Sure! I´ll be careful" I said as I ran upstairs. My sister is one year old, she often cries for me or so Mama has told me! That´s why I feel I should go care for her whenever I can.

As I walked inside the room, I noticed countless eye devices floating around, all of them followed my movements towards the cradle.

"Ritzey! How are you?" I asked her as I took her out of the cradle, it was really easy for me to carry Ritzey, she was as light as a doll!

"Mako…" said Ritzey as I carried her.

"Did all these eyes scare you…?"

"Eyes…?" my sister said with curiosity.

"Eh? You don´t see them?" I asked her as I turned to see the eyes in the room.

"No…"

"Hmm… well…" I murmured as I thought on what to do.

I rushed downstairs and sat on the sofa with Ritzey on a side and gave her the baby bottle, when she finished drinking the milk, I went to the kitchen where Mom took Ritzey and thanked me. I nodded and went back stairs to stare at the eyes which were glaring at me.

"Who are you all?" I asked as I stared at them intently "Nice to meet you, I´m Makoto" as I said this, the eyes changed to green and jumped me making me trip and fall on my butt "Uh… what…"

The eyes did happy sounds and stuck out their tongues to lick me.

"Hahaha guys, stop it! Stop! Haha" I uttered as the eyes kept licking me happily "Ehehehe you guys are so cut, wanna come with me to Miharu´s house?"

The eyes nodded content at my suggestion.

"Uhmm… but you guys are too many… I know, I´ll bring one of you with me. So! Who wants to come?" I asked watching them arguing doing funny sounds to communicate with each other.

"Makoto! The porridge is done sweetheart!" called mama after a while.

"Ah! Coming mama!" I replied and then turned to see the eyes who kept arguing "Oh come on guys…" I said. An eye then rushed towards me so I caught it and ran away "Sorry guys, better luck next time!" I said and so exited the house with mama and the eye.

"So you won, hooray!" I said to the eye, it smiled happily as I said that "Hmm… I should name you something…" The eye then did some funny noises catching my attention "Eh? So your name is Elesis? That´s a nice name" I said while smiling.

"Sweetie, who are you talking to?" Mama asked amused.

"Just to a friend" I said making Mama smile.

"Haha, so you have an imaginary friend already? That´s nice" she said "So? What´s your friend´s name?"

"Eh? That´s Elesis" I said as the eye nodded "But I can´t hug it…"

"Ah? Why not Makoto?" asked mama.

"Well, he is squishy, super soft! I´m afraid to hurt my friend…" I said. Mama then looked thoughtful at me and nodded.

"Come on, Makoto" said Mama as she took me by the hand and pulled me gently into a store; the store was filled with toys and candy.

"Amazing…! This store is so cool!" I said excitedly as I wandered around, Elesis looked around equally amused.

"Makoto, choose a toy of your liking, I will buy it" said Mama.

"Great, thank you!" I said as I kept looking around, I then saw Elesis staring at a bunny plushy "You like that one?" Elesis noddd and pushed the bunny off the shelf just above me.

"Have you chosen dear?" asked mama.

"Yes, I did" I said as I approached her and handed her the bunny.

"Aww, this is so sweet" said Mama as she took it to the counter.

"Elesis chose it himself" I said happily, mama smiled at me and handed me the bunny afterwards; she had bought another bunny but in pink for Ritzey, we then left the store.

"Elesis, how is it?" I asked it as I saw how it fused with the toy "Ehehe, I´ll take that as a yes" I said as I hugged the toy.

"Makoto, once we arrive there, remember not to go outside without an adult" said mama.

"Okay!" I said. As we walked past an alley, I heard a lot of noise and so I turned to see; a gang of boys were beating a boy repeatedly, there was only one boy that wasn´t hitting him, he had his arms crossed and was looking away possibly preoccupied. Our eyes met for a moment, it didn´t last much since mama pulled me gently away.

"Makoto… don´t look over there, it´s dangerous" said Mama.

"Eh, but…" I looked back to the alley noticing Elesis flying back in the direction of the alley "Elesis, where are you going?!" I exclaimed letting go of mama´s hand to run after it.

"Makoto?! Where are you going?!" exclaimed Mama as I ran after Elesis but I didn´t listen since I was focused on him. Elesis had left the bunny for some reason.

"Elesis! Wait!" I called him as I kept running after it. A while later, I jumped it and caught him between my arms; I ended in a really dark place deep in some weird zone, where was I?

"Elesis… where did you fly off to?" I asked him then receiving an apologetic gesture from him "Elesis, you can´t leave like that…"

"So, what´s a cute kid like you doing here?" asked a strange woman..

"Eh?" I asked as I looked confused at her.

"You have nice hair… and a really cute face" she muttered "Would you like some cookies?"

"Cookies? Sure!" I said as the woman took me by the arm "Ah, what…"

"I´ll give you cookies when we get home, kid" said the woman.

"Eh? Are you sure?" I asked looking a bit uneasy at her.

"Yes… shall we?" she said as she pulled me; as she led me to her house, a small rock suddenly hit her hand breaking our hold. I turned to see the boy from before as he juggled the rock in his hand.

"How low can people like you fall?" said the boy, the woman glared at him in response "Don´t make me throw another".

"Uh…" I murmured unsure of what he had meant, the woman let go off me and left. The boy then approached me.

"What are you doing here? This is not a place for girls to play" he said, what did he mean? Oh, maybe just a way of speaking.

"Is that so… Elesis just flew off…"

"That´s not a reason to come here" he said flatly, I stared at him and pulled his cheeks to the sides forcing a smile "Why, you…" he uttered irritated.

"Hehee, you look better like this" I said while giggling. He shoved me away politely and sighed.

"We have to leave this-" he said interrupted by me.

"Why were your friends beating that boy?" I asked.

"Because they like pummeling other children" he said.

"Eh? But don´t you feel sorry for him?" I asked a bit concerned.

"Feel sorry?" he asked while arching a brow confused.

"Why do you look so confused?"

"I have no idea what that is" he said surprising me.

"That´s impossible…" I said amazed "You don´t know what being concerned is?"

"Why are you asking me this?" he asked not understanding my intentions.

"But you looked upset back there…" I said.

"Did I? I don´t remember" he said flatly.

"So, you don´t see it´s bad?"

"Huh…? Bad? Out of curiosity… is your family odd?" The boy asked me, I didn´t understand the question so I just stared blankly at him "Oh boy… so you are…"

"Huh? Why would my family be odd?" I asked with a small pout.

"Odd Citizens are those who behave in the opposite way the whole city does" said the boy as he took me by the hand and walked away from the area.

"Oh… well, then yeah, I guess" I said while nodding, he turned to see me and shook his head.

"If someone else asks you that you have to deny it" said the boy as he sighed.

"Eh? Why?" I asked not understanding. Elesis was following us all along and suddenly just fused with the bunny once more.

"If anyone hears about this, it´ll definitely reach the Mayor and then your family will be sent to prison" he said with a serious expression.

"Oh…" I murmured for a second "By the way, thanks for helping me" I said, he then stopped walking and turned to see me slightly irritated.

"Did you not hear what I just say? If you tell anyone else you might end in prison" he said remarking the word prison.

"Yes, I heard. I wanted to thank you though" I said with a grin, he rolled his eyes and kept walking.

"Regardless of you heeding what I am saying, you better not tell anyone else or accept if you care about your family" I said as I giggled at his obvious concern.

"Thank you for your concern" I said happily, seems he did know what concern was.

"Huh? I´m not concerned… I don´t know you…" he said a bit confused about what I was saying.

"Sure, but thanks anyway" I said while nodding, he kept pulling me along as we got back to more familiar areas.

"Odd people are so confusing…" said the boy as he sighed troubled.

"Hehe, I think the same of you all" I said with a smile, all of a sudden the boy stopped walking "Hmm?"

"Makoto! Where did you run of to?!" asked my mama as the boy released my hand.

"Here you are, your Mom was worried about you" said the boy as he stared at my mom in the verge of tears, with that I was sure that he was aware of what being worried was.

"Oh, thank you boy, what´s your name?" asked my mama to the boy.

"My name is Daiichi, Dairei Roux Daiichi" said Daiichi as he bowed his head politely; he was kind of weird for a "normal" citizen in VileTown.

"Glad to meet you Daiichi, I´m so grateful to you, how can I repay you dear?" asked my mama to him, he only shook his head.

"There´s nothing to repay, Miss" he said causing Mama to smile happily.

"I´m pleased to meet another of our people" said Mama, with that I could tell she meant "Odd people", I giggled at that since Daiichi wasn´t yet he was pretty nice anyways.

"I… uh…" Daiichi murmured making mama to stare at him with curiosity, he then shook his head "No, it´s nothing, I´m happy as well"

"Come play with Makoto one of these days" said Mama to Daiichi, I nodded content at the invitation and looked pleadingly to Daiichi.

"Huh..? Well, that´s…" Daiichi murmured as he slowly stared at me and sighed in resignation "Alright Miss, I will"

"We live across the woods from your house, Makoto is always playing around there" said Mama to him who looked a bit surprised "Oh, sorry dear, it´s just your family´s name, that´s why I know where you live"

"Oh… I see… yeah, my parents are well known I guess…" he said still a bit surprised, maybe he didn´t expect me to live so close? "Well, Miss, I´ll be going then" he said as he excused himself, mama just nodded.

"Mama, I-" I said interrupted by Mama who slapped me really hard, she then hugged me tightly as she sobbed on my shoulder.

"Makoto… I was so scared…" said Mama making me feel really bad.

"I´m sorry…" I said as I tried to restrain the tears from falling, she had never hurt me like that before…

"Don´t you see, these streets are really dangerous? Someone could have kidnapped you!" she said sounding upset. After she said that to me I remained deadly silent, my good mood had disappeared just like that… I then turned to see behind me to find Daiichi staring at me with a startled expression on his face, seems he was the type to worry for many things even if he didn´t accept it. I smiled at him reassuringly trying to ease the worry on his face.

Mama kept pulling me in the direction of Miharu´s house, Daiichi had left just a bit after staring at me; as we kept walking, I suddenly felt a sudden energy hit me, why energy? I don´t know… I had a sudden headache and saw a flash of events happening before me, all those events were foreign to me, I had no memory about them yet they felt so real…

"Makoto, what´s the matter?" asked Mama as I stared down. I was a bit confused and felt how someone stared at me, why did I feel such thing…?

Elesis tried to comfort me as it moved the bunny´s arm a little against my hand, this made me smile and so I gave Elesis a tight squeeze forgetting about such odd things for now.

"It´s nothing mama, I want to arrive at Miharu´s house already!" I said excitedly, Mama just frowned a little bit in response.

"Makoto, I know that you are excited right now but don´t cause problems to Miharu, he is sick right? Please try and not cause trouble" said Mama as we came into view of the front door.

"I´ll behave mama" I said simply as I stared at Ritzey who was being carried by Mama.

"Good to hear that" said Mama with a gentle smile, she then pushed the doorbell; after like a minute someone answered the door, it turned out to be Miharu looking really red.

"Miharu!" I said startled, he stared at me looking weary but still he smiled the best way he could.

"Welcome… nice to see you Miss Kaiser, hi Makoto…" murmured Miharu as he panted slightly.

"Oh, Miharu are your parents home?" asked Mama in a worried tone, Miharu just nodded.

"Yes, don´t worry Miss Kaiser, they are just in the shower right now so I had to come open the door" said Miharu, I knew he was lying so I just frowned at the lie.

"Well, Miharu, here I brought Makoto to play with you or well more like give you some company" said Mama "I will come back later for him but if anything happens or you need something, you can always call me sweetie".

"Thanks Miss…" said Miharu as he smiled, my mom then asked me not to go out at all and to stay in the house, I nodded and watched her leave with Ritzey, I then closed the door and watched Miharu kneel down.

"Miharu! Why did you lie like that?" I asked Miharu as I frowned a bit upset.

"Well, that´s because…" said Miharu, he was then interrupted by a boy that came running looking nervous.

"Miharu! Why did you left the bed?! I told you the soup would be done soon!" said the unknown boy, he then stared at me "And you are…?"

"My name is Makoto, I go to school with Miharu" I said happily.

"Oh, I see. My name is Harumi, I´m Miharu´s neighbor" said Harumi, I then nodded and helped Miharu go back to his room, Miharu was pretty light as well "Wow, you are really strong…"

"Eh? Well, Miharu is as light as a feather so I can carry him with ease" I said with a smile, I didn´t know why people told me that time to time, Mama was also surprised by how I could carry Ritzey but geez, she is just a baby!

"Don´t be surprised Harumi… I don´t doubt Makoto can lift a car when he grows up" said Miharu with a smile to Harumi.

"Well, you do look pretty strong for your height" said Harumi as he giggled; I just pouted at him as a response, we walked into his room and so I did my best to put him on the bed, Harumi kept being amazed at me; he walked around the bed and sat, I just crawled up and sat between them.

"Harumi… what happened to Miharu? Why is he sick?" I said as I squeezed Elesis.

"Oh, don´t worry so much, we were just playing in the rain, I was lucky, but Miharu not at all; we won´t play again after this" said Harumi looking a bit troubled.

"Miharu…" I murmured worried, I then noticed him trying to grab my bunny; I smiled and put Elesis on top of him "Oh? Do you want to play with Elesis?"

"Elesis?" both Miharu and Harumi asked with the same tone of confusion.

"Yes, it´s a friend I made earlier" I said happily.

"Makoto…" murmured Miharu as he weakly stared at me with a worried expression on his face, I slowly stopped smiling and instead looked at him with an uneasy expression, was there anything wrong? "Where did you get this bunny?"

"Ah? Why, is there something wrong with it?"

"This toy gives off a really unpleasant pitch black aura, didn´t you feel odd before when you were carrying it?" asked Miharu, I just frowned at that, was he trying to say Elesis was evil?

"Elesis is not evil!" I said to him with slight irritation, how could Elesis be evil? I just met him today! But he was true on feeling something odd, just a while before I had felt a strange energy and had seen strange scenes in my mind.

"Makoto… if you keep that bunny, sooner or later horrible stuff will start to happen to you, I can guarantee that" said Miharu with a serious tone even when he was so weak.

"Miharu, what are you saying…?" asked Harumi to Miharu with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Makoto… I´m not trying to be mean, it´s just that if you keep that bunny is like choosing to befriend a spirit of low vibration" said Miharu as he panted "It will start to drain your energy and taint your thoughts black making your life miserable"

"Miharu…" I murmured as my eyes bleared with tears "You are scaring me…" I noticed the change in his expression after I said that.

"Though well, I could always be wrong right? I´m sorry to have frightened you" said Miharu as I hugged Elesis tightly, I didn´t like how that sounded; I lifted my bunny and stared intently at it.

"Elesis… you are not evil right?" I asked him, he only made funny noises in response "I knew it!".

"Huh?" murmured both Harumi and Miharu as they saw me speaking to Elesis.

"Elesis just said he is not evil" I said happily "He just wants to play".

"So… you talk with the bunny…" said Harumi sounding skeptical.

"So, Harumi, you´ve been taking care of Miharu all this time?" I asked him changing the subject.

"Yes, I can´t possibly leave him with his dad…" said Harumi sounding nervous.

"Eh? Why is that?"

"Dad doesn´t look after me, he has to go to work" said Miharu.

"Oh I see…" I murmured sad for his father not paying so much attention to Miharu.

"Stupid, it´s not just that, you know your dad gives me the creeps" said Harumi making me curious.

"Harumi… I don´t see how my dad-" Miharu said interrupted by me.

"What´s wrong with Miharu´s dad?"

"Well… he is just a bit…" said Harumi, he then looked at Miharu for a few seconds "…Scary"

"Scary? Well, yeah hehe Miharu´s dad is scary alright" I said happily, I then changed the subject "Miharu, everyone misses you at school!"

"Is that so…" murmured Miharu "How bad I haven´t been able to go".

"The teacher keeps saying how you´ll be under a pile of homework when you go back" I said, Miharu grimaced at this.

"Oh… that sucks…" he said as he probably imagined the large quantity of work he had to do.

"Don´t worry, Miharu, I´ll help you do your homework" said Harumi cheerfully, Miharu turned to see him skeptical.

"What? But Harumi, what about your own homework…?" asked Miharu to Harumi.

"Did you forget? Miharu, I´m new around here, I´m still not in a school" said Harumi with a troubled smile.

"Ah? Harumi is not in a school? Maybe you would like coming to ours, it´s really fun!" I said excitedly, it would be cool that his neighbor came with us.

"Hmmm, well, I can try asking dad but it´s his decision to make" said Harumi looking worried "I hope he agrees though, it would be great to be with you two"

"Awesome!" I exclaimed giving Harumi a hug, he only giggled and ruffled my head.

"Yeah, that would be great alright" said Miharu with a smile though he fainted afterwards startling us.

"Miharu?" Harumi and I asked looking shocked.

"Miharu! Hey!" exclaimed Harumi, it had been so sudden… the good thing was that we were there for him.

….

The air felt cold around me, I was still in this strange place, I´ve been mediating on the same spot for so many hours, though this place had apparently no time. In my meditation time, I managed to wake up in my body back in Her´s place, but the odd thing was some stranger was bathing me… that had been really shocking and confusing but I was soon distracted by the energy he emanated, it was white in color and it was quite perplexing since it was seriously soothing; it only made me want to stare at him even more… my consciousness back there didn´t last much and I came back here, knowing I was just energy and that I was meditating; I had succeeded on going back and even though I didn't wish for it, managed to come back.

"Well, well… I see that you are now mastering being able to go back into body" said an energy close to me, I didn´t open my eyes, I didn´t want to lose focus on my intent on moving back there.

"What is it?" I asked the energy, I heard some laughs and felt how it sat beside me and placed an "arm" around my shoulder.

"Have you reflected on your intention? Do you really want to go back there?" it asked me.

"I have realized there´s no point in brooding over it, I know that I do not regret anything. I am with my brothers and facing what I have to face for a reason. I came into understanding that what Her has been saying about me is completely wrong but I am not without fault, I merely have to be firm of what I truly desire" I said convinced about it, being here in this place was not bad at all, it had given me time to think, time to come to terms with my own emotional problems that surfaced ever since Makoto had gone against the girls, ever since the whole mess started; I hadn´t been myself and I didn´t have time to calm down since bad things kept happening one after another. I was not to blame for acting as off as I could, yet, I had free will; I chose to stay in that unstable rush of emotions keeping me from knowing how to act, how to think and react.

"Oh? And what is that? Your true desire" the energy said.

"I want to protect my brothers, be a guide for them and love them sincerely; I don´t want to overlook any of the two, I want to be there for them yet let them be. I am what I have been till this moment, their brother and a parent. Even though I am more their brother, I know that they need a parent figure and I´m willing to parent them if that´s what they need" I said calmly. The problem Her saw wasn´t a problem, I am indeed their brother, the eldest. Since neither of them have experienced what being lovingly guided is, I had no problem offering that to them. Even if I didn´t remember my purpose of being with them consciously once I managed to fully go back, I wanted to know this even if it was in a subconscious state.

"So, have you cleared your negative energy?" asked the energy aside of me, it referred to the energy humans possess with every action, thought and point of view.

"I am working on that, I want to fully support my siblings and for that I´m cleaning my negative thoughts, that includes the being inside of me which has been feeding of those negative aspects of myself" I said, I tried focusing on that being inside me but it was always so hard to purify since it had wanted to possess me, it had been trying to exchange our places therefore making it harder to communicate with.

"What do you think about what you mother has told you?" It said probably referring to Her.

"The only thing she helped me realize is that I truly have to deal with my emotional issues, I am, however, not wrong in parenting Makoto. I may be overprotecting him but I will work with that and manage to come to a stable point between being an older brother and a parent" I said.

"Why a parent though?" it asked me.

"I know deep within that´s been one of my many purposes, the way I know this is from the time I took Makoto out of prison; he was so broken and empty, it was truly heartbreaking to see him like that. I helped him with everything, I cooked for him, I fed him, I helped him have a bath, I managed to bring him back from that dismal place where he had locked himself. He came back from there by his own but I took care of him till he did, doing that was a clear start for me in the parenting side" I said "I am their brother but I have the responsibility to love and care for them just like a parent would"

"It amazes me the clear thinking you´ve got from the sole action of meditating. I am pleased with what I´m hearing right now" said the energy sounding happy.

"I am not however, the only one that purpose though, I know Makoto cares for me as well and I truly appreciate that. I would only like for me to love Miharu the same way I love Makoto, our lives have made that difficult but I know he needs me"

"Certainly, he does. He is a child eager to be loved" said the energy "What I see you are confused with still is the true way you love them"

"Huh?" I murmured losing my concentration; I turned to see the energy that turned out to be a soul with the shape of my childhood friend Rex "Rex…?"

"Daiichi, you have never been able to truly describe your feelings, I´m amazed at the progress you´ve made in that matter so far" said Rex "I still remember everything about us playing and conversing, I knew before you did… that you were an "odd" citizen by heart living the fake life of a "normal" citizen but you couldn´t realize it until your relationship with Makoto developed further"

"Rex… what…" I murmured speechless, the last time I saw him had been possibly one of the most traumatic experiences I´ve faced.

"I can feel your sorrow towards me, Daiichi, but that conversation can be held later, when you are truly prepared to listen" said Rex with a gentle smile, he rarely smiled like that but well, it was nice to see him again "I have been looking after you my friend, the affection you show towards your brothers is only different because of the different types of love you have"

"Different kinds of love…?"

"You´ve led a complicated life, having to deal with being an older brother yet parent not just Makoto but parent now Miharu" said Rex "Your roles have you confused and even though you may not be able to find true balance you´ll learn to deal with it, however…"

"Rex, I´m trying as best I can to sort out my reasons" I said, I had undefined time to think about myself, was he trying to say I have not solved much?

"You have always observed everything and everyone but when it comes to yourself, you are as lost as a puppy. You need to be honest with yourself, otherwise what is waiting for you in a near future is just regret, feelings of emptiness and loneliness; when you reach that point you´ll understand your feelings in the saddest and cruelest ways possible" said Rex sounding a bit sad "I love you so very much, as a member of your soul group, it´ll be seriously painful to watch you slowly approach that closed road"

"Rex… what are the different types of love you are trying to point out?" I asked confused about it.

"You see… there´s the love of a mother and a father, there´s the love of a daughter and a son, there´s the love of a sister and a brother, the love of an acquaintance and a friend, the love between lovers and the love to people in general. Humans have a lot of forms of love, each experience teaches a new thing to every soul, since every soul trades a role for a lifetime" said Rex "There´s always a confusing riot of emotions lurking in every human and one of those that can confuse a human in new levels is the emotion of "love", there will always be a different kind of treating to a person depending on the grade of love they have for them"

"Yeah…?" I murmured trying to understand the meaning behind what he was saying.

"Souls often plan to meet their life partner at a certain point in time, of course if that soul agreed to a life of matrimony and such, some others just decide to be asexual and so on, doesn´t matter what the relationship said couple has, if it´s a happy matrimony or a conflicting, abusive one. Souls will always choose their partner to learn a certain lesson. What I´m trying to say here is… when a soul has the same vibration level than the one they decided to live, then the plan goes as it was schemed, but when the soul´s level is different, the souls do not engage in a life together, meaning the lesson couldn´t happen and so they walk through another road finding a different lesson"

"Rex… why are you telling me this…"

"By this, as an example, a woman that planned to be with certain man to learn a lesson will not end with him, either they do not meet at all or there are no feelings to be able to put them into the next step of the plan. The same happens when one meets and has feelings for the person they wanted to be with their whole lives… but if the vibration level differs too much, life will provide ways to separate them and the souls will undergo other life lessons. You may call them the plan B" said Rex, I still didn´t understand what he tried to point out with that.

"Rex…"

"Daiichi… you must learn to explore your real feelings, otherwise your future will end providing you pain and loss" said Rex as he looked sadly at me "I admire the way you are progressing but if you do not sort out what your true feelings are, be able to interpret them in all ways… I´m afraid this will be the outcome"

"I promise to try and figure that out as well" I said, ignoring what he seriously meant. I was going to start working with other aspects I had to change, I couldn´t rush or I wouldn´t be able to do anything.

"I´m just saying this to you so have it in mind, do not misunderstand me, I´m happy with what you´ve come to realize, they are a great step for you" said Rex "I wish to watch you through all your life so you may know I´m always there with you".

"Thank you, Rex, hope we can speak about what happened in the past some other time" I said to him, he looked thoughtful for a minute.

"I see, I hope to discuss that with you as well, so I´ll be glad to have that conversation with you when you are prepared" said Rex.

"Alright, I accept that" I said as I nodded, he then grinned at me.

"Say did you know there´s someone else like you roaming this place?" asked Rex, I looked puzzled at him "He is also somehow lost but I can guarantee you both can learn a lot about each other if you happen to talk to him"

"Someone like me?"

"Yes, I´ll try and guide him in your direction so you guys can talk" said Rex "I hope it helps you, Daiichi"

"Yes, that sounds interesting… thanks for talking to me, Rex" I said to him with a smile.

"Haha, it´s always great to catch you smiling" said Rex "Whenever you want my friend, I can speak with you here as much as you desire"

"Thank you, let´s talk after I meditate a bit more, alright?"

"Sure! Just think about me and I´ll be here, that, or you can also try coming to me" said Rex as he faded. It had been interesting talking to him; he had died years ago in one of the most gruesome ways possible, it made me sincerely happy to meet him once more. I just wonder what he had meant with all the love things… a future that leads to despair? I didn´t know how that could happen but I wanted to avoid that by all means.


	5. Leader Meeting pt1

**A/N: In this story the "…." means a separation between the "Memory Lane" and "Reality" meaning that a series of "-" points out an interruption and a start or well the continuation.**

**The "XXX" means a separation in P. O. V**

**The "000" means a restart which only happened in the déjà vu kind of chapter of the other story but just if it happens to occur here and so you know.**

**The " ***" means dream starting point or ending point.**

**"=" is for memory start point or ending point.**

**Note: Memories and dreams have text in italics**

**Guys, the VileTown Arc covers PPGR:Reflections, then continues with PPGR: Regressions and then goes to PPGR: Reiterations. So like for that review that asked me to continue the Viletown arc well, this is it XD after this arc which is the past/infancy arc follows the RowdyRudes meeting the RowdyRuffs and well, having to go through the Fractal VileTown Events and go to school (if someone was wondering what happened to that) If you wanna know about Fractal VileTown festivities go to my profile at deviantart my username is "Enthriex" there´s on the VileTown Intro the date in which I´m updating this story as well as the Townsville one if anyone wants to take a look! (:**

**Chapter 5: Leader Meeting part1**

I was walking leisurely in this vast and unreal place thinking about what Rex had told me; there was someone like me in this place and I could find more about everything that was going on by speaking to him... someone like me huh, I wonder who that could be...  
I stopped walking and closed my eyes, maybe if I thought about him I could find him with more ease, after all... this place was endless and to find one soul by just searching was completely impossible, that, or at least would take me an eternity.

I sat down and started to meditate, I was trying to pinpoint the exact location where the boy was when all of a sudden an eerie kind of music crept in; it was a carnival like melody that was threatening to break my meditation. All of a sudden I heard evil clown laughter and started to get flashbacks from my past that really shocked me... why had I contacted such place? I thought the place I was in was a high vibrational place so what went wrong...?

Could it be that my meditation failed...? What´s going on...? or perhaps, that boy was here and that´s why I made contact to such place... yeah that sounds more like it, but crap why clowns...

"The circus is always here kids, it´s open from morning to night at all times and all hours" said an unknown voice, it looked like some odd circus to me... but well, that changed when I walked inside, the happy music playing changed abruptly to a mad creepy one, the place became twisted and deranged or should I say normal in VileTown terms? What was this place and what is that other soul doing here...?

"My,my what a sweet and delicious kid we have here" I heard some clowns say, I followed the source of the voices and found them surrounding someone... as I approached them carefully, I noticed a small child in the middle; did they just mentioned he looked delicious...? Just great, one of my worst nightmares became reality...

I felt a shiver run down my spine and as a reflex dodged to a side, I looked behind me and found a clown with a net; apparently they were trying to catch me as well.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Another boy to join the feast!" said a creepy looking clown, I noticed how one was grabbing the kid´s arm and so I sprinted towards him and broke the hold the clown had on his arm, I then carried him on my arms and flew off as far as I could from them.

"Shoot, dinner is gone!" exclaimed several clowns; I hid in one of the Ferris wheel cabins where I placed the kid. How strange this all was... I came here trying to find that other soul and ended in this kind of situation with clowns above all.

I looked out through the window to gaze at the horrible appearance of this place, it looked endless too... an endless scary circus, just great. I´m thankful that Makoto is not here as well, he would probably be holding on to something, or well, me in that case out of fright. I´m not bothered by horror stuff but clowns, evil clowns? That was asking too much from me...

"Wha..." muttered the boy as he regained consciousness."Ressee...?"

"You alright?" I asked him, wanted to make sure that none of the clowns had bit him or something...

"Wait a second... you are not Ressee..." the boy murmured "But why do you look exactly like him then...?"

"I guess that´s a way to say you are fine" I said, what nonsense was he saying? I´m identical to who?

"Okay... forget it, what the hell is happening?" asked the boy, seems he is not aware he was about to be eaten by cannibal clowns but I don´t think it´s a good idea to scare a kid like that... though on the other hand he will know sooner or later.

"You were about to be killed by clowns" yeah, that sounded way more reasonable... yeah right.

"Killed by clowns? Do you mean that as in..."

"Circus clowns, yeah" I said flatly, I know it´s not common at all but a clown is a clown after all...

"And you saved me then..." he said with a questioning look.

"Yeah, you were about to be eaten" I said flatly, it was the truth after all.

"Eaten?! What kind of creepy clowns were those?!" He exclaimed.

"Lower your voice, we´ll be found if you make too much noise" I said noticing how the ferris wheel never stopped, that was a good thing though.

"But, you mean it? Clowns are supposed to be funny shit..." he said, not sure if he was trembling in fear or finding disgusting the fact that the clowns were trying to eat him... or both.

"Yeah"

"You sure don´t speak much..." he said, it´s not that I didn´t speak much, he just speaks too much; not wanting to hear him yell and stuff, I chose to not say what was in my mind.

"Clowns here are pretty much normal except for the cannibal part" I said, that was clearly the only thing that seemed to confuse me, since when did clowns eat children? I know they are scary and do crazy acts to entertain their audience but this was just...

"Are you okay? Clowns are not- oh whatever... I just want to know what´s going on" he said as he sighed.

"How did you get here?" I asked him kind of curious of what he was doing in such dangerous place.

"Well, crap, the only thing I remember is that I was taking a shower, I then listened to an eerie circus like music and then my head hurt like fuck and everything went black" the kid said, he speaks a bit oddly for a kid his age... though well, many of the kids from VileTown are rough when speaking, just like he is.

"I see... that sure is a weird way to end somewhere" I said, could it be someone robbed his soul and placed him here? In that case he should go back as fast as possible before his soul ends trapped here forever.

"Man... I hope Butch is not killing Boomer right now..." said the boy to himself, I arched a brow curious about what he was saying but since it didn´t concern me, I chose not to ask.

"I see... I have to get you out of here" I said, the boy looked at me with a confused expression.

"Why would you have to help me?" he asked, was it so weird of me? I just don´t want to leave anyone behind in this place...

"If you don´t leave soon, I´m afraid your soul will be lost in this place forever" I said, his face filled with horror.

"Oh crap! I don´t want to be here with those cannibal clowns, that´s just not cool!" he said alarmed.

"I´m Rage" I said, he stared at me for some seconds.

"Brick" he said "Now, where should we go, what is this place?"

"Like I´d know... I believe this is a low vibrational place, we have to get out of here before our souls are overwhelmed with negative energy, otherwise we´ll remain in this place as I previously stated" I said.

"Low vibrational… overwhelmed by negative energy? What? What kind of language do you speak? The language of monks or some crap like that?" he said as he stared at me like if I was crazy.

"Doesn´t matter, the point is we have to get out" I said, he nodded.

"Well, at least you are speaking English now" he said "So, for the time being the thing is running away from them"

"Yes" I said, for some odd reason a vague and trivial thought struck me; when was the last time we went to school? Yeah, I know, really irrelevant right now.

"So we should… hm… well, first things first, is there an exit here?" he asked, I arched a brow incredulously.

"Do I look like I have the map of the place drawn on my face?" I hate being sarcastic but seriously, I don´t like being here and less to be taken as a person who would come here… not that I care about that but whatever…

"Eh, yeah, you look as clueless as me" he said, seems he was being serious… "Well then, why don´t we try to go to the other side of the park to have somehow an idea of how the place is?"

"Yeah, if there´s an end to the park…" I said a bit worried about that, since this wasn´t a normal reality, the chance of it having a defined perimeter was minimal. Brick turned to see me and looked at me without saying anything for some seconds.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this circus exists on another dimension, it is not like the earth that has limits, perimeters and so on; in other words… we might not find a border" I said thinking about how we would do this of escaping from here.

"Not find a border…? Oh crap, well, we might as well try to cross the circus and verify just that" said Brick, I nodded, it was a thing to assume but it was different to know that as a fact.

"Well, then, we should" I said noticing the Ferris wheel rocking motion.

"Whoa! What the hell?" exclaimed Brick as he approached the mirror and looked through it discreetly.

"Come on boys! Get down from there, it´s not fun if you hide inside this! We are waiting for some meat! We want to invite you boys to our feast!" exclaimed two clowns in unison as they hit the ferris wheel over and over.

"Seems these freaks are not common clowns, huh" I said calmly though I was disgusted by the sole idea of clowns chasing kids.

"You bet! I don´t think I´ll ever see clowns the same again" said Brick "Come, let´s get out from the back window"

"Right…" I murmured as I followed him, we jumped out the window and flew side by side to explore the circus from above.

"See any exits or at least the other side of the circus, IF, there is one?" asked Brick, I shook my head in denial and continued to look around; good thing Makoto wasn´t here or Miharu in this case… though I don´t know if Miharu is scared of creepy circus and cannibal clowns.

"As I though… this place is endless, if we try to explore this place and know its structure we´ll take forever and the worst thing is we won´t achieve anything by it" I said, there should be another way out of this mad circus…

"I see, maybe we should do something else to come out…" said Brick looking thoughtful as he sat hovering on the sky.

"Yes, hmm… so the sound of some circus melody brought you here huh" I said pondering an idea I got earlier.

"Yeah, so?"

"Maybe the same melody will take you back home" I said, it should work in theory…

"Oh, yeah, that´s an idea alright" said Brick smirking confidently.

"So we should go look for the source then" I said about to fly off when Brick stopped me with one of his hands.

"Seriously, who are you?" asked Brick looking at me with a frown "You look so familiar…"

"Do I?" I asked indifferently, seems this kid was perceiving something I didn´t.

"Yes, when I touch you… putting aside how gay that sounds, I feel some sort of burning sensation on my hand" he said looking a bit troubled.

"Ah, that´s my heating ability, don´t mind it" I said, what else could it be but my heat warming his hand?

"Heating ability? Well, no, I don´t know what you mean but it´s not that… but what is that anyway?" he asked looking seriously intrigued.

"Oh, that…" I said, I took him by the wrist and looked at him with a serious expression "Well, like your hand, I can heat up anything I touch, my heating ability allows me to warm anything, melt anything or burn anything"

"Wha…?" he said as he widened his eyes a bit surprised, was it so hard to understand?

"If your hand had been cold I would have heated it, get it?" I said, he only arched a brow.

"Well, dude, that´s called body heat, of course you would have heated my hand" he said, yes, it was obvious if he put it that way but how could I explain it better than that…

"Let´s see… how else can I show you…" I said thing wondering how to get my point across, I then held his face.

"Huh? What are you doing…?" he said a bit freaked out, I hushed him and told him to calm down.

"Just feel" I said and applied some heat on his cheek so he felt the change of temperature, though I don´t think he´d notice since he had gotten quite red after a few seconds…

"Man… I don´t get you" he said, I just sighed.

"Your embarrassment doesn´t help my explanation" I said causing him to blush even more, why was he blushing anyway? Oh, wait… maybe I made him blush by the heat of my hand?

"Oh shut up" said Brick as he rolled his eyes.

"Wait a second…" I said suddenly realizing something idiotic I should have noticed before "We are souls right now, there´s nothing to heat up"

"Eh… that´s true…" said Brick "Seems we can feel the "body heat" we want then?"

"Yeah, something like that…" I said releasing a sigh, though I did see the blush on his cheeks anyway "Well, I do have another way to explain it, though it´s a bit idiotic" I remembered how Makoto used me to heat him up when he was cold at night instead of using the blankets and the way he repeated to me that annoying fact.

"Ah? Really?" he asked expectantly.

"It´s like a heater… my brother always repeats how he finds me a useful living heater" I said with a light blush on my cheeks, geez, Makoto can come up with some ridiculous ideas… though they do get the point across quite easily…

"Oh! I see, now I get it!" he said with a grin.

"Do you?"

"Yeah! You are like a living oven inside, meaning you have an abnormal body temperature" he said with a proud grin, oh, seems Makoto does explain things quite simple but efficiently.

"Yeah, that´s basically it" I said still a bit bothered by the way I had to explain it.

"Great! But that´s not what I meant… I mean, I feel like some sort of connection, like if we held hands for some time we would be dragged forcedly and fuse into something" he said making me arch a brow confused, I then understood; maybe he was that soul I was looking for… yeah, it does make sense now that I think about it.

"I see, I think I can understand what you mean" I said, he looked at me surprised.

"Really? Do you?"

"Yes, in fact I came here with the purpose of finding you" I said, how would I explain that? Who knows…

"Eh? With the purpose of finding me? Did someone tell you about me being at the circus?"

"That´s…"

"Well, I guess I have to thank you, I was almost turned into clown food" he said as he grinned, well, seems explaining that to him is not important right now…

"Yeah, well, let´s go look for the source then" I said flying off, Brick then approached me and frowned at me.

"So you know where you are going?" asked Brick, I shook my head, I was trying to help him here but yes I had no idea where I was supposed to go.

"No clue. We can only go look inside the circus tents and hope to find something" I said

"I see… well, that might be useful" said Brick, he then stopped and looked around.

"Huh?" I murmured trying to see where he was staring at.

"I heard something…"

"What?"

"A familiar scream…" murmured Brick a bit shocked, he then flew away without saying anything, I followed him quietly.

"Let me down you freak!" yelled an unknown voice, as we approached the source of the screaming, we came into view of the scene of the clowns carrying another boy. If anything he looked like Makoto a bit…

"Butch!" yelled Brick, I turned to see him fly right towards the boy and pummeled the clown to free the other. The black haired boy looked at Brick with a horror like expression; he then shook his head and frowned at him.

"Brick! Seriously! Where the hell do you end going to?! I´m already fed up of shitty clowns trying to eat me!" said the boy, Butch huh… if I´m not mistaken, Brick mentioned him a while ago and if it´s possible, he might me his brother.

"It´s not like I wanted to end here of all places you dumbass" said Brick as he glared at Butch.

"Oh yeah? You are going to pay for making me come to such creepy and shitty place!" he said as he tackled his brother and both started to fight, I only stared at them indifferently wondering if they did this often.

"Brick…" I said finding hopeless to get any kind of response from him when he was fighting with his brother, I was surprised though, they do the exact opposite of what Makoto and I do… though well, Makoto is the one that hugs me each and every time…

"Hey! I was almost eaten a while ago don´t give me your crap!" yelled Brick as he kept rolling around with his brother.

"I hate all this shit! Those clowns are so creepy and crazy dude!" yelled Butch as he kept fighting his brother in a childish way, they had powers but they were having a round of fists, kicks and hair pulling…

"I get it! You are scared aren´t you?!" exclaimed Brick, Butch got angry at the comment and pulled harder on Brick´s hair.

"Of course I´m not, you ass!" yelled Butch, I kept looking at them, seems Butch was scared of this place just like Makoto would be… wait a second, is Butch… Makoto´s other soul? It wasn´t impossible, if Brick was my other soul, Butch could b Makoto´s since he was Brick´s brother.

"…" silently, I approached them and pulled them apart, I was holding Brick by his shirt with my left and Butch with my right "Sorry to interrupt, we have to find an exit"

"Gr…" growled both Brick and Butch at each other, I then put them down and kept walking.

"So, what´s up with Boomer?" asked Brick to Butch.

"Ehh he is with Misaki, he better not come here or else" said Butch.

"Or else what? You are going to try and kill him again?" asked Brick with a sarcastic look on his face.

"Dude, I already told you I wasn´t conscious so don´t start with your shit!" yelled Butch at him. Well, I don´t care if they are arguing, as long as they don´t turn it into a real fight.

"Guys…" I said as I stopped, I looked ahead and found a clearly odd tent.

"Huh?" murmured Butch as both turned to see me "What? Don´t you see we are arguing here?!" he said irritated.

"Did you find something?" asked Brick.

"Yeah, there´s a high chance of it being **something**" I said, Butch approached me and looked ahead.

"Yeah, that tent is sure asking us to investigate it" said Butch with a smirk "By the way, who the hell are you?"

"I´m Rage" I said flatly, not like there was much to explain right now.

"He saved me from being eaten by the clowns" said Brick "And that´s basically it"

"Oh…" murmured Butch "Well then, thanks for not letting my brother be eaten by clowns, that would be fucking pathetic and disgusting at the same time" as he said this, Brick punched him hardly.

"Bastard" said Brick as he looked at him sarcastically.

"Well then, my brother´s hero, where do you come from?" he said with a tone of mockery.

"Fractal VileTown" I said simply as I approached the tent´s entrance.

"Fractal VileTown? What´s that?" he asked, he approached me and looked at me fixatedly.

"That´s…" I said as I stared at him, before being able to reply, I saw Makoto´s laughing face on his, I blinked repeatedly and shook my head.

"Eh? You alright man?" he asked looking confused at me, I held my head in pain, seems I got a headache all of a sudden…

"Yeah, I´m fine" I said as I kept walking inside just to look at Makoto´s figure in the center. "Makoto…?"

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" asked Brick but instead of answering him, I sprinted towards Makoto who was smiling happily at me.

"Rage, hi there" said Makoto.

"Makoto… what are you doing here…? Did someone trap you here as well?"

"Hehe, I missed you so much!" said Makoto as he hugged me.

"Hey!" exclaimed Brick as he approached me with Butch by his side "Who the hell are you talking to?"

"Huh? Well this is-"

"Never mind him, Rage! I´m the only one, who is important right now, am I wrong?" asked Makoto.

"Makoto…" I murmured as I let him hug me, though a really random thought entered my mind, when did he get here and how? Where was Miharu?

"Oh crap… don´t tell me you fell for the melody playing out in this place?!" exclaimed Brick, Butch looked at him questionably.

"Dude, what melody?" asked Butch confused.

"There´s a melody playing here seems it makes one start hallucinating so don´t fall for that! It may be clowns in disguise or some freaky thing like that…" said Brick.

"Don´t believe him, Rage, you are not hallucinating, I´m here…" said Makoto as I stared at him intently, having him now with me was such a relief but… deep down I felt something was wrong.

"Makoto…"

"Dude! Stop talking to whatever shit you are talking to! Like Brick said, that´s a mere illusion!" exclaimed Butch, I turned to see him and once again I saw Makoto´s face though this time he was looking at me concerned; I looked back at Makoto who as hugging me and decided to do something really hard…

"Rage…?"

"Knives' ball" I said making a lot of knives appear and pierce him, I was really scared to actually hit Makoto but once he was pierced by the attack, the illusion faded. "So that was an illusion huh…"

"Who were you seeing anyway?" asked Brick and Butch at the same time.

"My brother" I said, seems I was a bit vulnerable right now since I was eager to see Miharu and Makoto again.

Before anything else was said, an odd music playing caught our attention, we turned to see and we faced a creepy looking boy with a monkey on his shoulder.

"Well, well, look who we have here, our first guests today" said the boy as he made a pillar rise from underneath placing him some meters above us. "Welcome to the circus of doom, we are here for your amusement, with crazy clowns and wild freaks, May you never escape from here!" as he said this, many clowns started to appear blocking our way out.

"Well, I knew that boy was nuts but this?" said Butch "He is way too mad"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the boy exclaimed making the whole tent light up showing the audience which wasn´t there before "We are about to begin, take a seat and have a good time! The Mad Circus show is about to start!"

"Oh hell no! you think we´ll take a part on this?! We are not stupid you faggot!" exclaimed Butch at the boy.

"Oh is that so? You don´t have a choice here I´m afraid" said the boy with a smirk "I´ll show you three what the power of the circus is like!" he said, his eyes glowed red as he said this and on his shoulder his monkey was moving its mouth which made it apparent; the monkey was controlling the boy. Now to formulate a way to get the monkey away from that kid…


	6. Childhood Trance

**A/N: ****In this story the "**….**" means a separation between the "Memory Lane" and "Reality".**

**This time, instead of P. I will write in a different way, hope you like it, you may tell me your opinions after reading n_n**

The "000" means a restart which only happened in the déjà vu kind of chapter of the other story but just if it happens to occur here and so you know.

**The " ***" means dream starting point or ending point.**

"**=" is for memory start point or ending point.**

**Note: Memories and dreams have text in italics**

**Also! For people that don´t bother to read the A/N before the actual story… this arc comes after "PPGR: Reflections" so well, you are starting with the second part, if you don´t want to get confused then I suggest you starting with "PPGR: Reflections" (:**

**Lastly, I´m submitting pictures at "enthriex" (deviantart account), I may not update quickly (here in fanfiction) but you can always look at the pictures related to the story over there ouo I have journals based on what the Mayoress says for those interested in Fractal VileTown´s government and stuff, Mayoress will be appearing at the end of this arc.**

**Chapter 6: Childhood Trance**

The circus was now dimly lit, the audience roared from their seats as the boy glanced down to where Brick, Butch and Rage where, they stared back at the boy decided on bringing him down, however, it wasn´t long before the boy summoned a few elephants which were all standing on huge balls, they looked quite scary as their eyes looked fierce and red, their teeth became fangs and their trunks separated as if that was the most natural thing ever. Brick, Butch and Rage ran dodging the elephant tries to run them over and began thinking of a plan to counter this situation and hopefully get out.

"Well, well, what an uncalled for event" said Brick as he frowned in the direction of the elephants, Butch followed close behind him looking thoughtful, perhaps he was thinking of a solution to the current problem whereas Rage was analyzing the place looking for anything that could be used to their advantage, for his chagrin, there were clowns blocking all the possible exits and the boy on the pillar didn´t look like he was going to remove the barrier he had made the moment he created the audience that was now gleefully watching the show.

"Don´t even mention it, being watched like zoo animals, being chased by mutant elephants and being treated like toys by a monkey bastard is not what I could call fun, in fact, this is fucking humiliating!" exclaimed Butch as the three did some jumps and turns to avoid being hit by the elephants.

"That's it! That´s it! The show is just starting my dear attractions, you three are the guests here and so I´ll be sure you enjoy your time to the fullest!" exclaimed the boy who raised his arms to his sides and released a dark energy which started to change the layout of the place; soon, it was not filled with water and the elephants had turn into mutant dolphins and sharks.

"Well, seems he is going to be doing this changing crap" said Butch as he looked indifferently towards the sharks that were approaching "Brick, you better make it up to me"

"Make it up for what? You decided to get caught, idiot" said Brick as he stared equally indifferent to the sharks getting closer, Butch turned to see him while glaring not understanding the bullshit his brother was saying, Rage looked at the two for a bit in wonder before focusing back to the sharks, didn´t they think of moving?

"Don´t say bullshit, bro! If it wasn´t for me you would be a clown´s dinner by now" said Butch sounding proud, Brick shook his head while he hovered dodging a shark, Butch looked at him confused as he smacked two sharks making them retreat to a fair distance, Rage used one of the dolphins to get on and throw a few knives to a shark.

"Dude, you are useless, if it wasn´t for that guy, then I´ll be a clown´s dinner, you didn´t do anything" said Brick as he focused back to the current situation, Butch sighed and went for the mutant dolphins smacking them together then throwing both towards Brick who barely dodged the throw and then glared back "Hey! What was that for?!"

"You ain´t shit without me, just deal with it" said Butch with an air of arrogance, Brick looked at him puzzled and then shrugged; he had better things to do than to argue with Butch right now.

"Yeah, yeah, would ya focus?" said Brick ending the argument, Butch glared dissatisfied but he would have to accept it for now.

"But what do we have here? Now that´s cheating, if you use your powers it won´t amuse the audience!" exclaimed the boy as he made the layout glow, they waited for what seemed like forever for some change that apparently wasn´t coming until the gravity of the place turned stronger and so made them stick to being inside the water.

"Oh…" murmured Rage as he was now in the water staring at the other two who looked definitely pissed about the situation, he looked around and saw how the people were laughing and staring intently at them.

"Now, move it!" exclaimed Brick as he swam to a side avoiding the shark´s intent to bite him, it was turning harder to stay floating and what was more frustrating was that the animals or mutants didn´t look affected by the change; because of their inability to hover and their difficulty into mustering enough strength to fight the mutants, they were forced to swam to one side and another gradually tiring themselves, it was harder for Butch and Brick since they were in their children forms and so their limbs were not as long as they could be, once the three got tired enough and the sharks and dolphins were about to strike them, the boy snapped his fingers and the weird creatures disappeared along with the water.

"Damn monkey bastard…" muttered Butch as he gritted his teeth and panted roughly while coughing water time to time, it was one thing to have powers but they had been reduced to swim stupidly around until it was inevitable their exhaustion; Butch was fed up, he stared at the audience and all he wanted to do was to cut the laughter, put an end to their amusement and force them into silence.

"What the hell do you want from us?!" asked Brick enraged, he was frustrated because of his current child condition, if he was back to his original form it wouldn´t be a problem breaking that boy´s face; he shared Butch´s anger with the audience that kept laughing at them whereas Rage just stared at them confused, what was so funny?

The boy looked at them in silence for a few seconds, he then curled his lips into a sideway smile to finally turn it into a crazy grin "I wonder… I want the perfect circus, you may stay here for the rest of your lives!" as he said this, the circus tent turned taller, the ceiling was getting more and more away from them, it was like an illusory technique, they seemed to shrink and become as small as ants where, it then distorted and finally the reality became twisted. They were getting a headache, as they opened their eyes it became clear a hallway with several doors with interrogation marks on them "So, where am I? if you find me, you´ll get a prize" said the boy from who knows where, the three looked at each other and nodded decided, they were going to separate and find the boy.

"But, if one of you gets lost then it´s game over alright?" said the boy, the three stopped running and looked behind them shocked, they couldn´t separate then it was better to stay together and find the boy without risking getting lost… it was obvious right? If they got lost together then it didn´t count as being lost.

"Butch! Rage! Get back here!" shouted Brick trying to convince them from going back, Butch immediately went back but in Rage´s case… as he tried to take a step back, a black hope opened under his feet; Rage tried jump to a side to avoid falling in but a black tentacle wrapped around his leg and pulled him down, he managed to keep from falling leaning on the floor and putting his strength on his hands to remain there.

"Crap…" muttered Rage as he turned to see below by the corner of his eye, Brick and Butch quickly went running to him, it would be bad if they lost him right there, would it mean the game would be over once he fell?

"Hold on! We´ll pull you out!" yelled Brick though before they could approach him, they felt how some tentacles wrapped around them forcing them to remain still and as consequence had to watch how Rage was pulled by the tentacle dragging him below, the hole was quickly filled and so the tentacles holding them in place unwrapped from them and disappeared, the boy appeared soon after.

"Oh my, what a shame, you just lost one player I´m afraid" said the boy with a sly smirk, the two glared at him; that was clearly cheating!

"Hey! That was cheating, that shit was holding us in place!" yelled Butch furiously, the boy didn´t blink at this, instead, he smiled softly. A empty, eerie smile.

"Is that so? I would suggest looking for him then, you may try and find him but if another gets lost then the game will be over" said the boy as he disappeared once more "After that, come and find me! If you don´t then you´ll be trapped here forever! Amusing, is it not? I´ll be waiting"

Butch and Brick stared back to the hole that was previously on the floor and glared; crap; now they had to look for him so they could get out.

Down below the hole, Rage was being dragged by countless black tentacles all wrapped around him forcing him to stay still, it wasn´t long before Rage gave up, he was being drained of his power as he continued to struggle but how? Were they sucking his soul´s life force? When he remained still nothing happened, his power stopped from being drained and judging by the amount of tentacles in the dark room it was better to remain still.

"Makoto… how did it turn like this…" murmured Rage to himself "Miharu, I wonder if you are fine having to deal with Makoto right now…" as he continued saying this things to himself, he found himself soon sleepy, hugely inappropriate but seems he was going to inevitably fall asleep for a while… oh well, who cares?

_=Classical music played with harmony all around, the place looked empty as the notes from Beethoven's symphony filled it, just like if it was an abandoned haunted mansion. Approaching the source of the beautiful melody was a young child with short orange air and fiery red eyes who was playing the piano with a tall, slim woman behind him who wore a long black dress. The boy played fiercely as the woman yelled constantly for him to do it faster or to slow down on specific parts, he did as told as stoic as he could but he couldn´t help it and let a frown form on his face expressing his frustration._

"_Quit making that expression, it´s distasteful" said the woman while looking at the boy who was trying his best to keep an unexpressive face. "You are playing too slow, keep up the pace"_

_The boy said nothing, he tried to correct himself a bit nervous about the woman who was not moving from her place, he was getting fed up about the piano lesson, he was tired of being pressured to play perfectly, he was human, he was a kid, couldn´t they understand and be more flexible?_

"_You are doing it wrong!" exclaimed the woman as she slapped his hands with the baton, the boy winced in response yet kept playing; he hated this part of the hour, the woman would start yelling a lot more and slap him over and over if he didn´t play as expected. "Why are you not improving? It´s been three days and you keep playing ridiculously bad"_

"_Uh…" murmured the boy as he kept playing trying to ignore the shouting; it was always the same, she would rant about how pathetic and ungrateful he was, how she was tired of repeating the same lesson to an unskilled, irremediable brat "Miss Kay, I´m tired…"_

"_Oh, now you think you can dismiss the lesson just because you felt like it? How daring!"_

"_No, it´s not that, I just…" he said timidly to her, he wasn´t used to speaking up to the adults even if it as a common thing with others of his same age, Daiichi wasn´t shy at all, he was mostly serious but he wasn´t shy._

"_Silence" said the woman in a derogatory tone. Daiichi flinched at the sound of the woman´s voice but he had to express himself so he would give it his best to do just that._

"_But I…!" Daiichi said desperately trying to let himself be heard but the woman looked at him disdainfully instead._

"_Silence!" she said a little more louder, she was getting annoyed at the boy in front of her who stubbornly kept trying to complain._

"_Miss Kay, I-!" exclaimed Daiichi in an attempt to speak but the woman silenced him with a scary glare._

"_Silence, I said silence!" the woman was about to explode, the boy looked at her shocked and looked down, he had stopped playing since he had given his attention to trying to speak. "Master Daiichi, you can´t behave like a little kid, mastering the piano is a must for the next heir of the Roux family"_

"_But I don´t want that, I just-" he said trying to reason with her, the only thing he truly desired was to go out and breathe some air, he didn´t dislike the piano, in fact, he loved it… but being forced to do something is what always pushes you away from it._

"_You are the son of Lady Rosaline, you must not complain about your duties; gracefulness above all, you have to follow your path and be compliant about your schedules" she said calmly though her voice inspired respect and the way she had said it meant no joke._

"_But Miss Kay…" Daiichi tried again, he knew it was fruitless but it wasn´t wrong to try, right?_

"_Enough! Behave like you are supposed to, you are not allowed to misbehave or throw tantrums!" yelled the woman as she slapped his hands again with the baton making him wince once more. "Because of that attitude of yours, you´ll have to stay for another two hours"_

"_Huh? Alright…" said Daiichi in defeat, it had been impossible to try and reason with her, what was he thinking? Daiichi kept playing as the woman instructed him to do so, he was tired and mildly irritated at the insufferable behavior of the woman._

_Just like that, the two hours passed by, he then had to assist to a violin lesson followed by a harp one, why did he have to study the harp? Who knows, that was his mom´s idea and he had to study even if he was against it. After being in the next lessons which included the clarinet and singing, he had to go to his history and geography classes; it was boring when someone else taught him, he loved reading and what he loved the most was to be left alone to do just that, without someone that could interrupt or annoy him as he did so._

_Daiichi had two hours a day where he could do anything he liked but because of the way his parents scolded him if he did something ungraceful, he resorted to staying inside and read instead… after that he had the joy of assisting to classes he had chosen because of his attachment to those, within those activities was cooking and cleaning, why? Because he found these extremely refreshing and different to what he did imposed by his parents; his day was far from over yet, he had one last class, an art class he wasn´t really fond of and lastly, he had swimming class; everyday was a new sport or simply training and by the end of the day he was completely exhausted physically and mentally. He always went to take a bath comfortably where he fell asleep almost always, because of the frequency this happened, he took measures to avoid drowning and be able to sleep for a while as he enjoyed the hot water against his skin._

"_Hmmm… why are adults so mean?" he asked to himself out loud, he wouldn´t be heard anyway "Today was another rough day for me, at least I can breathe when I´m taking care of my sisters or at least cooking something tasty" he was used to taking care of his sisters even though one of them was older than he was, he was always looking after them and worrying about the time they would come back home; this was inevitable, because of his parents that barely paid any attention to them, he had to assume the role to fill in the void._

_Daiichi poured some shampoo on his hand and massaged it softly making circles with his fingertips, after this he closed his eyes and tilted back his head trying to find comfort._

"_Yesterday was a strange day though, that girl that went after some unknown thing to those dangerous zones…" he said with a frown remembering everything that had happened, how he found her being held by an old woman, how he threw the rock to free the girl and how he took her back to her mom "She was saying some weird things too… like how I was a worrywart, I´m not a worrywart, am I? I don´t even know her so that´s impossible…" after formulating this thought, he closed his eyes and fell asleep, thing that was interrupted by the sudden opening of the bathroom door._

"_Hello! Daiichi!" yelled a boy whose hair was tied back into a low ponytail, he had light grey bluish eyes and was wearing only a blue towel "I came to join you here, your bathtub is way too big to be an ass and not share" as he said this, he hung the towel on a hanger that was nearby._

"_Rex…" he murmured a bit startled at the sight of his friend, he sighed in resignation and watched him enter the water with him "Would you quit entering like that? You almost give me a heart attack"_

"_Is that so? You are so lazy, as far as I remember, you are always dozing off somewhere" said Rex as he sat across him "That´s not good, Dai, you could fall while standing one of these days you know"_

"_I know that… I still don´t know why that happens though, it´s not like I sleep on purpose" said Daiichi sincerely, Rex stared at him sarcastically and pouted in response._

"_Yeah, right, you don´t even believe that" he said, he always thought his friend was so lazy that he just shrugged off the world around him and slept to his heart´s content._

"_Okay, whatever…" said Daiichi not wanting to argue, Rex was too stubborn for his liking and he was trying to relax, so why bother?_

"_Why that attitude? Was that old woman annoying you again?" asked Rex as he stared at Daiichi deviously._

"_Ah, don´t look at me like that and yes, she was annoying me" he said as he slightly nodded "But why the need to insult, you should be more respectful you know…"_

"_I should? Daiichi, that´s your problem my friend, "should" is not a word that you want in your vocabulary" said Rex confusing Daiichi, he expressed this by arching a brow "In other words, just do as you like, Dai! No one can stop you from doing the things you want to do"_

"_Is that so… I wish it was just as easy" said Daiichi as he massaged his head for a bit, Rex stared at him in silence for a bit finding something strange going on in his friend´s mind._

"_So, what´s bugging you?" asked Rex who instantly caught the attention of his friend, Daiichi looked at him for a few seconds before looking away._

"_Rex, do you think I´m odd?" asked Daiichi tried to emphasize the word "odd", yes; he was still thinking on what that girl had said to him._

"_Huh? Daiichi…" murmured Rex looking at him worriedly, he then smiled gleefully "Haha that´s a given, no doubt about it"_

"_Eh? You think I´m odd…?" Daiichi asked looking truly surprised at Rex who gave him thumbs up._

"_You´ve never been in my mind what one could call a "normal" citizen" said Rex "But don´t worry, it´s not like I´m going to say anything about it"_

"_But I don´t even know if I´m that…" said Daiichi as he hugged his legs and burrowed his head between his arms._

"_Huh? Then why are you asking? Tell me something… do you consider yourself an "odd" citizen?" asked Rex looking curiously at his friend._

"_Consider myself "Odd" huh… I don´t know, I´ve never given it a thought" said Daiichi making Rex smile troubled._

"_Well, maybe the fact that you are even consider it is proof that you might be one, Dai" said Rex surprising Daiichi._

"_I´m an "Odd" citizen then…? But I… what about the gang? What about those other kids I´ve hurt? You know that an odd citizen doesn´t do that" said Daiichi trying to find an answer out of his friend._

"_Hmm, that´s true… however, I know you have a noble heart behind all that, so yeah, you may be an Odd citizen in the closet" said Rex while letting out a giggle._

"_Huh? What a strange way to put it… but well, who knows…" said Daiichi ignoring his friend´s laughter and trying to think on an answer himself._

"_Well, well… you may want to get out before you drown" said Rex puzzling Daiichi, as Daiichi looked at him surprised he suddenly yanked his head away from the water and coughed roughly, yeah, he had fallen asleep and Rex wasn´t even in his bathroom._

"_Uh… seems Rex didn´t do that today" said Daiichi somehow confused for his weird dream though well, Rex did use to do that so it wasn´t that strange. "Rex, am I really an "odd" citizen?"=_

"Hey! Rage!" the orange haired heard someone shout and as he opened his eyes he found himself being carried by Butch like a potato sack whereas Brick was trying to wake him up.

"Uh…" murmured Rage way too confused as he looked behind him and found a numerous group of mutant clowns chasing them, when had he fallen unconscious?

"You passed out after we stepped inside the tent, I took it as a sign to not approach it yet and fled along with Butch but the clowns started chasing us" said Brick as he shot a few laser beams at them.

"You chose a horrible moment to pass out dude" said Butch as he wondered why the hell he had fallen unconscious.

"I saw some things within the dream" said Rage "seems we´ll have to try something else if we want to avoid what will happen inside"

"Ah? Did you see what went on inside? But the only thing you did was pass out!" exclaimed Brick way too confused, how could he know this?

"I think I have an idea but it´s going to take some time before it works" said Rage thinking on contacting the souls at serene city to ask them for help.

"I hope that includes helping Mikie and the amoeba boy, cause I can´t leave without finding them" said Butch startling Brick who stopped flying all of a sudden.

"Mikie?! Butch, why did you didn´t say anything?!" asked Brick as Butch looked away and shrugged.

"What? I don´t think it´s smart to upset you, you wouldn´t be able to think like that" said Butch receiving a glare from his brother.

"Like you did just now? Butch, you are an idiot!" exclaimed Brick who glared at him incredibly wanting to fight his brother.

"Say what? Don´t call me idiot you bastard!" yelled Butch who quickly tackled his brother down to the floor to try and punch him. Rage stared at them expressionless; they were going to fight here and now even when the clowns chased them? It was amazing how different they were from them, as for the plan, well… he´ll had to look for a way to pull it off; if only these two would stop fighting each other, then it would be easy but how to stop these two first?

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry I took so long updating (: hope you have liked and so I say I appreciate any suggestions, complaints, corrections or any kind of opinions, don´t be shy, it´s what inspires me to write faster n_n (If you´d like longer chapters you could also comment me about that ouo)**


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